Vol.10, No.2 (1997) 265-280
Abstract: Optical fibres, together with light sources and detectors, play a key role in telecommunication systems. One of the factors affecting the transmission losses of the fibre and its tensile strength, is the diameter uniformity which is directly related to the drawing process. A high degree of diameter uniformity in the fiber drawing process is achieved by an appropriate construction of the drawing machine and by applying an optimal system for the control of the diameter. Optimization of such a control requires prior structural identification of the drawing process and its parameters. In this work, a nonparametric identification of the drawing process has been done. The cross-correlation method has been used, with a random noise as the input signal. The obtained transfer function is a second-order one with real poles, which accords well with the theoretical assumptions. Identification of the drawing mechanism and fibre diameter measurement system, which contains a significant dead time, has also been done. The results obtained can be used for the synthesis of the optimal control function.
Key words: Optical fiber, drawing process.