Influence of thermal insulation layer of fiber coil on FOG thermal drift

To deal with the thermally induced nonreciprocal phase shift in fiber coil, the influence of thermal-insulation material on suppressing the thermal drift of fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) is studied. The thermal drift errors and the thermal steady times of FOG with different thicknesses of thermal-insulation layer under the same temperature procedure are analyzed based on detailed comparison. Simulation results show that, with the thickness of thermal-insulation layer increased from 0 mm to 4 mm, the peak value of thermal drift is decreased from 0.12 (°)/h to 0.08 (°)/h, and the steady time is increased from 2520 s to 3600 s. According to this investigation, an optimal thickness of thermal-insulation layer could be achieved to minimize the thermal drift peak-value under the condition that the thermal start-up time is guaranteed.