The measurement of large and fast strains using Rayleigh backscattering in optical fibers
Hari Datta Bhatta1, Luis Costa2, Andres Garcia-Ruiz2, Maria R. Fernandez-Ruiz2, Hugo F. Martins2, Moshe Tur1 and
Miguel Gonzalez-Herraez2
1
School of Electrical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel 6997801 ([email protected])
2
Departamento de Electronica, Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid 28805, Spain
Abstract:
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) requires the measurement of large (hundreds of microstrains) and dynamically
varying (tens to hundreds of Hertz) strains along hundreds of meters of attached/embedded optical fibers, preferably
in a distributed way, where each small fiber segment serves as a local sensor and a whole fiber constitutes a densely
packed sensor array. While standard fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) provide a discrete coverage of the fiber, currently
available draw-tower gratings can continuously populate the whole fiber. Alas, these fibers, and their interrogators,
are very expensive, having limited capabilities, ~100 Hz sampling speeds and few tens of meters range. Brillouin-
based sensing can measure large and dynamic (absolute!) strains over standard single mode fibers using complex and
costly setup. Rayleigh backscattering based sensors, again in standard single mode fibers, are currently available in
commercial equipments having ability to measure strain (or temperature) at very high spatial resolution but with
limited sampling rates and measurement range (<100 m).
Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) has driven a huge interest in Rayleigh-based, phase-sensitive Optical Time
Domain Reflectometry (ΦOTDR) techniques that can measure minute optical phase changes in a long fiber at
sampling rates limited only by the fiber length. Using OFDR (Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry), researchers
have adapted ΦOTDR techniques to the measurement of minute strains with speeds somewhat limited by the setup in
use and often involving complex coherent detection. The recently introduced chirped-pulse phase sensitive OTDR
(CP-ΦOTDR) uses a standard ΦOTDR setup with the exception of replacing the standard probing pulse by a chirped
one. Based on its initial success in measuring dynamic strain perturbations, we have recently extended its capabilities
to the demonstration of >=1000 µε (peak to peak) @ 50 Hz and >=150 µε @ 400 Hz. This paper will focus on
simulations that analyze issues involved in this promising technique.
Keywords: Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), Rayleigh backscattering, Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS),
chirped-pulse phase-sensitive Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (CP-ΦOTDR), dynamic strain perturbations
Author’s Bio: Mr. Bhatta is a PhD student in the School of Electrical Engineering, Tel Aviv University since May
2017. He has studied for his M.Sc. degree in Lasers and Photonics at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. His current
research is performed in the framework of an EU-funded ITN-FINESSE program and focusses on fast and dynamic
strain sensing using fast–BOTDA. As part of the FINESSE program he has also done research in Universidad de
Alcalá, Spain (on phase-sensitive OTDR technique, employing advanced techniques) and also in the École
polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland (on Differential pulse-width pair BOTDA technique).
Acknowledgements: This work was performed in the framework of ITN-FINESSE, funded by the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action grant agreement n°
722509 and Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (18337.2 PFNM-NM).
