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This study aims to address the issue of high-precision measurement of AC electric field. An electro-optical sensor with high sensitivity is proposed for this purpose.

The proposed sensor combines electromagnetic induction and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing techniques. It is composed of a sensing probe, a piece or stack of piezoelectric ceramics (PZT) and an FBG. A signal processing circuit is designed to rectify and amplify the induced voltage. The processed signal is applied to the PZT and the deformation of PZT is detected by FBG. Theoretical calculation and simulation are conducted to verify the working principle of the probe. The sensor prototype is fabricated and its performance is tested.

The results of this study show that the sensor has good linearity and repeatability. The sensor sensitivity is 0.061 pm/Vm⁻¹ in the range from 250 to 17,500 V/m, enabling a measurement resolution of electric field strength of 16.3 V/m. The PZT stack is used to enhance the sensor sensitivity and the resolution can be improved up to 3.15 V/m.

A flexure hinge lever mechanism is used to amplify the deformation of PZT for further enhancement of sensitivity. The results show that the proposed sensor has high sensitivity and can be used for the accurate measurement of an electric field. The proposed sensor could have potential use for electric field measurement in the power industry.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new method for the fabrication of a large-scaled muscle scaffold containing an artificial hollow tube network, which may solve the problems of nutrient supply, oxygen exchange and metabolic waste removal.

In this paper, a ferric chloride structural strength-enhanced sodium alginate hollow tube was used to build the hollow tube network. Gelatin infill was then added to make a large alginate/gelation gel soft tissue scaffold. A pilot experiment was performed and an osmotic test platform was built to study the perfusion and osmotic ability of the 3D printed hollow tube. The essential fabrication parameters (printing velocity and gap) for building the vascular (i.e., hollow tube) network-contained scaffold were investigated. Moreover, cells in culture were spread within the gelation scaffold, and the circulation characteristics of the hollow tube network were studied.

The printed large-scaled scaffold that contained a ferric chloride structural strength-enhanced sodium alginate hollow tube had good perfusion ability. The osmotic distance of the hollow tube reached 3.7 mm in 8 h in this experiment.

The osmotic distance was confirmed by perfusing a phenol solution; although it is more reliable to test for cell viability, this will be investigated in our later research.

This research may provide new insights in the area of tissue engineering for large-scaled vascularized scaffold fabrication.

This paper presents a new method for fabricating large-scaled scaffolds, and the perfusion ability and osmotic distance of a ferric chloride structural strength-enhanced sodium alginate hollow tube are shown.