Abstract
Brillouin scattering-based distributed fiber-optic sensing is a powerful measurement tool that uses the
inelastic scattering of incident light by an acoustic wave (phonon) to determine strain and/or temperature
conditions of the fiber. Since the original Brillouin-time-domain-analysis (BOTDA) technique was proposed, several
other analysis methods have been introduced to improve sensing performance in four key areas: spatial resolution;
measurement accuracy; total sensing length; and measurement-acquisition time. The four factors are generally
interrelated and improvements to one factor often come at the cost of one or more of the others. For example, one
system might sacrifice spatial resolution for total sensing length, while another might sacrifice accuracy to gain
acquisition speed. We present a BOTDA system based on dark-pulse scattering that provides improved resolution,
accuracy, and acquisition time over conventional BOTDA systems, without the severe limitations on sensing length
often imposed by other high-resolution techniques. Theoretical validation of the method is given, and experimental
results are presented that demonstrate 20-mm resolution strain measurements with an accuracy of ±20 με, which is the highest spatial resolution
yet reported for a BOTDA system.
© 2007 IEEE
PDF Article
More Like This
Cited By
You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.
Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription