Mapping Vibration and Strain using Fibre Optic Sensors Seminar

Distributed optical fibre sensors (DOFS) presents unique features that have no match in conventional sensing techniques. The ability to measure physical phenomenon such as temperatures and strain at thousands of points along a single fibre in harsh an inaccessible environments is particularly interesting for the monitoring of structures such as pipelines, flow lines, oil wells and coiled tubing.

Despite a steady improvement in the performance of DOFS, most of the research has been focused on advancing DC and quasi-DC distributed sensors. Recently, we have managed design and test a distributed sensor which is capable of fully quantifying dynamic disturbances along the sensing fibre such as acoustic perturbations. Using a technique known as optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR), the sensor has been used to measure the frequency components of multiple disturbances along a 1km sensing fibre simultaneously.