Polarization dependence in CHESS fiber optic strain monitoring system based on fiber Bragg gratings

This report describes the polarization dependence in the hull monitoring system CHESS, developed in FFI project 79301 CHESS II. The report describes the polarization behaviour of some main components in the system, and describes a depolarizer for reducing unwanted polarization effects in the system. The latter part of this report contains experimental investigations for identifying unwanted polarization effects and demonstrates how these effects can be reduced.