The phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (φ-OTDR) is a good candidate for distributed dynamic strain sensing, due to its high sensitivity and fast measurement, which has already been widely used in intrusion monitoring, geophysical exploration, etc. For the frequency scanning based φ-OTDR, the phase change manifests itself as a shift of the intensity distribution. The correlation between the reference and measured spectra is employed for relative strain demodulation, which has imposed the continuous measurement for the absolute strain demodulation. Fortunately, the Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) allows for the absolute strain demodulation with only one measurement. In this work, the combination of the φ-OTDR and BOTDA has been proposed and demonstrated by using the same set of frequency-scanning optical pulses, and the frequency-agile technique is also introduced for fast measurements. A 9.9 Hz vibration with a strain range of 500 nε has been measured under two different absolute strains (296.7 and 554.8 με) by integrating the Rayleigh and Brillouin information. The sub-micro strain vibration is demonstrated by the φ-OTDR signal with a high sensitivity of 6.8 nε, while the absolute strain is measured by the BOTDA signal with an accuracy of 5.4 με. The proposed sensor allows for dynamic absolute strain measurements with a high sensitivity, thus opening a door for new possibilities which are yet to be explored.
Home > Journal Home > Opto-Electronic Advances
Opto-Electronic Advances
ISSN: 2096-4579
CN: 51-1781/TN
Opto-Electronic Advances is the open-access journal providing rapid publication for peer-reviewed articles that emphasize scientific and technology innovations in all aspects of optics and opto-electronics.
CN: 51-1781/TN
Opto-Electronic Advances is the open-access journal providing rapid publication for peer-reviewed articles that emphasize scientific and technology innovations in all aspects of optics and opto-electronics.
High-sensitivity distributed dynamic strain sensing by combining Rayleigh and Brillouin scattering
Author Affiliations

First published at:Dec 24, 2020
Abstract
References
1. Boyd R W. Nonlinear Optics 3rd ed (Academic Press, Amsterdam, 2008).
2. Barnoski M K, Jensen S M. Fiber waveguides: a novel technique for investigating attenuation characteristics. Appl Opt 15, 2112–2115 (1976).
3. Dakin J P, Pratt D J, Bibby G W, Ross J N. Distributed optical fibre Raman temperature sensor using a semiconductor light source and detector. Electron Lett 21, 569–570 (1985).
4. Culverhouse D, Farahi F, Pannell C N, Jackson D A. Potential of stimulated Brillouin scattering as sensing mechanism for distributed temperature sensors. Electron Lett 25, 913–915 (1989).
5. Horiguchi T, Kurashima T, Tateda M. Tensile strain dependence of Brillouin frequency shift in silica optical fibers. IEEE Photonics Technol Lett 1, 107–108 (1989).
6. Wang B Z, Fan B H, Zhou D W, Pang C, Li Y et al. High-performance optical chirp chain BOTDA by using a pattern recognition algorithm and the differential pulse-width pair technique. Photonics Res 7, 652–658 (2019).
7. Peng F, Wu H, Jia X H, Rao Y J, Wang Z N et al. Ultra-long high-sensitivity Φ-OTDR for high spatial resolution intrusion detection of pipelines. Opt Express 22, 13804–13810 (2014).
8. Wang B Z, Pang C, Zhou D W, Dong Y K. Advances of key technologies in long-range distributed Brillouin optical fiber sensing. Opto-Electron Eng 45, 170484 (2018).
9. Wang B Z, Dong Y K, Ba D X, Bao X Y. High spatial resolution: an integrative review of its developments on the Brillouin optical time- and correlation-domain analysis. Meas Sci Technol 31, 052001 (2020).
10. Lu B, Pan Z Q, Wang Z Y, Zheng H R, Ye Q et al. High spatial resolution phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer with a frequency-swept pulse. Opt Lett 42, 391–394 (2017).
11. Lin W Q, Yang Z S, Hong X B, Wang S, Wu J. Brillouin gain bandwidth reduction in Brillouin optical time domain analyzers. Opt Express 25, 7604–7615 (2017).
12. Zhang L, Costa L, Yang Z S, Soto M A, Gonzalez-Herraez M et al. Analysis and reduction of large errors in rayleigh-based distributed sensor. J Lightw Technol 37, 4710–4719 (2019).
13. Ba D X, Wang B Z, Zhou D W, Yin M J, Dong Y K et al. Distributed measurement of dynamic strain based on multi-slope assisted fast BOTDA. Opt Express 24, 9781–9793 (2016).
14. Dong Y K, Chen X, Liu E H, Fu C, Zhang H Y et al. Quantitative measurement of dynamic nanostrain based on a phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer. Appl Opt 55, 7810–7815 (2016).
15. Shao L Y, Liu S Q, Bandyopadhyay S, Yu F H, Xu W J et al. Data-driven distributed optical vibration sensors: a review. IEEE Sens J 20, 6224–6239 (2020).
16. He H J, Shao L Y, Luo B, Li Z L, Zou X H et al. Multiple vibrations measurement using phase-sensitive OTDR merged with Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on frequency division multiplexing. Opt Express 24, 4842–4855 (2016).
17. Peng F, Duan N, Rao Y J, Li J. Real-time position and speed monitoring of trains using phase-sensitive OTDR. IEEE Photonics Technol Lett 26, 2055–2057 (2014).
18. Zhang J D, Zhu T, Zhou H, Huang S H, Liu M et al. High spatial resolution distributed fiber system for multi-parameter sensing based on modulated pulses. Opt Express 24, 27482–27493 (2016).
19. Zhao Z Y, Tang M, Lu C. Distributed multicore fiber sensors. Opto-Electron Adv 3, 190024 (2020).
20. Juarez J C, Maier E W, Nam Choi K, Taylor H F. Distributed fiber-optic intrusion sensor system. J Lightw Technol 23, 2081–2087 (2005).
21. Koyamada Y, Imahama M, Kubota K, Hogari K. Fiber-optic distributed strain and temperature sensing with very high measurand resolution over long range using coherent OTDR. J Lightw Technol 27, 1142–1146 (2009).
22. Wang C, Wang C, Shang Y, Liu X H, Peng G D. Distributed acoustic mapping based on interferometry of phase optical time-domain reflectometry. Opt Commun 346, 172–177 (2015).
23. Wang Z N, Zhang L, Wang S, Xue N T, Peng F et al. Coherent Φ-OTDR based on I/Q demodulation and homodyne detection. Opt Express 24, 853–858 (2016).
24. He H J, Shao L Y, Li Z L, Zhang Z Y, Zou X H et al. Self-mixing demodulation for coherent phase-sensitive OTDR system. Sensors 16, 681 (2016).
25. Liehr S, Muanenda Y S, Münzenberger S, Krebber K. Relative change measurement of physical quantities using dual-wavelength coherent OTDR. Opt Express 25, 720–729 (2017).
26. Pastor-Graells J, Martins H F, Garcia-Ruiz A, Martin-Lopez S, Gonzalez-Herraez M. Single-shot distributed temperature and strain tracking using direct detection phase-sensitive OTDR with chirped pulses. Opt Express 24, 13121–13133 (2016).
27. Bhatta H D, Costa L, Garcia-Ruiz A, Fernandez-Ruiz M R, Martins H F et al. Dynamic measurements of 1000 microstrains using chirped-pulse phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry. J Lightw Technol 37, 4888–4895 (2019).
28. Soto M A, Lu X, Martins H F, Gonzalez-Herraez M, Thévenaz L. Distributed phase birefringence measurements based on polarization correlation in phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometers. Opt Express 23, 24923–24936 (2015).
29. Mikhailov S, Zhang L, Geernaert T, Berghmans F, Thevenaz L. Distributed hydrostatic pressure measurement using Phase-OTDR in a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber. J Lightw Technol 37, 4496–4500 (2019).
30. Liehr S, Münzenberger S, Krebber K. Wavelength-scanning coherent OTDR for dynamic high strain resolution sensing. Opt Express 26, 10573–10588 (2018).
31. Peled Y, Motil A, Tur M. Fast Brillouin optical time domain analysis for dynamic sensing. Opt Express 20, 8584–8591 (2012).
32. Chaube P, Colpitts B G, Jagannathan D, Brown A W. Distributed fiber-optic sensor for dynamic strain measurement. IEEE Sens J 8, 1067–1072 (2008).
33. Voskoboinik A, Yilmaz O F, Willner A W, Tur M. Sweep-free distributed Brillouin time-domain analyzer (SF-BOTDA). Opt Express 19, B842-B847 (2011).
34. Bernini R, Minardo A, Zeni L. Dynamic strain measurement in optical fibers by stimulated Brillouin scattering. Opt Lett 34, 2613–2615 (2009).
35. Zhao C, Tang M, Wang L, Wu H, Zhao Z Y et al. BOTDA using channel estimation with direct-detection optical OFDM technique. Opt Express 25, 12698–12709 (2017).
36. Fang J, Xu P B, Dong Y K, Shieh W. Single-shot distributed Brillouin optical time domain analyzer. Opt Express 25, 15188–15198 (2017).
37. Zhou D W, Dong Y K, Wang B Z, Pang C, Ba D X et al. Single-shot BOTDA based on an optical chirp chain probe wave for distributed ultrafast measurement. Light Sci Appl 7, 32 (2018).
38. Dang Y L, Zhao Z Y, Tang M, Zhao C, Gan L et al. Towards large dynamic range and ultrahigh measurement resolution in distributed fiber sensing based on multicore fiber. Opt Express 25, 20183–20193 (2017).
39. Wang B Z, Hua Z J, Pang C, Zhou D W, Ba D X et al. Fast Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry based on the frequency-agile technique. J Lightw Technol 38, 946–952 (2020).
40. Horiguchi T, Shimizu K, Kurashima T, Tateda M, Koyamada Y. Development of a distributed sensing technique using Brillouin scattering. J Lightw Technol 13, 1296–1302 (1995).
Funds:
the National Key Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Project of China (2017YFF0108700), National Natural Science Foundation of China (61975045).
Export Citations as:
For
Get Citation:
Wang B Z, Ba D X, Chu Q, Qiu L Q, Zhou D W et al. High-sensitivity distributed dynamic strain sensing by combining Rayleigh and Brillouin scattering. Opto-Electron Adv 3, 200013 (2020).