Optimizing geometry of extruded PMMA microstructured optical fiber preforms

Photonic crystal fibers are now widely research on its applications due to the special properties. One of such application is sensor. By designing the photonic crystal fiber with different geometry, it can adjust the sensitivity as a strain or temperature sensor. Sensitivity is important when comes into play as a sensor as a minute change in parameter will have adverse effect on certain research. The aim of this project is to optimize the fabrication of microstructured optical fiber preform. There are many method that are being explored to fabricate the preform, with stack and draw method being the most common and widely used method. However, due to the drawbacks of stack and draw being limited to certain geometry, this project will choose to use billet extrusion as a main method for fabrication. While SF57 glass is commonly used for optical fiber experiment, PMMA is a cheaper substitution for the more expensive glass. In this project, Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) will be used as the main material for extrusion. Temperature and extrusion will be the main parameter that will be varied in different experiment runs. Design of experiment is applied on the outcome of the experiment to analyse the relationship between the parameter with the geometry of the preform. The experiment runs conducted achieve high R-squared value during multiple regression line analysis. This indicate that the optimize parameter of 170.859°C and extrusion speed of 0.3mm/min predicted using the regression line model, has a high probability in achieving a straight preform with 12 clear and distinct hole.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering