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Title: Distributed optical fiber sensing: Review and perspective

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Reviews
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5113955 · OSTI ID:1570066

Over the past few decades, optical fibers have been widely deployed to implement various applications in high-speed long-distance telecommunication, optical imaging, ultrafast lasers, and optical sensors. Distributed optical fiber sensors characterized by spatially resolved measurements along a single continuous strand of optical fiber have undergone significant improvements in underlying technologies and application scenarios, representing the highest state of the art in optical sensing. This work is focused on a review of three types of distributed optical fiber sensors which are based on Rayleigh, Brillouin, and Raman scattering, and use various demodulation schemes, including optical time-domain reflectometry, optical frequency-domain reflectometry, and related schemes. Recent developments of various distributed optical fiber sensors to provide simultaneous measurements of multiple parameters are analyzed based on their sensing performance, revealing an inherent trade-off between performance parameters such as sensing range, spatial resolution, and sensing resolution. This review highlights the latest progress in distributed optical fiber sensors with an emphasis on energy applications such as energy infrastructure monitoring, power generation system monitoring, oil and gas pipeline monitoring, and geothermal process monitoring. This review aims to clarify challenges and limitations of distributed optical fiber sensors with the goal of providing a pathway to push the limits in distributed optical fiber sensing for practical applications.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1570066
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Reviews, Journal Name: Applied Physics Reviews Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 6; ISSN 1931-9401
Publisher:
American Institute of PhysicsCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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