Distributed Fiber-Optic Sensor for Dynamic Strain Measurement

A novel Brillouin-based distributed sensing technique is presented that can obtain the strain profile of the entire sensing fiber with a single optical pulse. Experimentally obtained spectra show that this comb excited pump signal is capable of strain and temperature measurement in a dynamic system. The results show the expected sinusoidal strain profile for a 12 s periodic strain cycle applied to the test fiber. The strain distribution for the entire fiber was obtained in 256 mus , thereby demonstrating for the first time, the potential to measure dynamic strains up to 3.9 kHz with 12 m resolution. Increased acquisition speed comes at the expense of achievable spatial resolution.