Research on the performance of multifunctional distributed optical fiber sensing system based on the combination of Brillouin optical time-domain analysis and phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer

There are many similarities between Brillouin optical time-domain analysis and phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer in system topological structure. A multifunctional distributed optical fiber sensing system based on their similarities and the combination of their topological structure is presented. The system can monitor strain and temperature, as well as detect and locate the intrusions or disturbances along the sensing fiber. Suppose that X is the width of the optical pulse incident into the sensing fiber with the unit of nanosecond and Y is the minimum detectable distance with the unit of meter between two intrusions that are being detected simultaneously. The experiment results show that y changes linearly with x according to the equation: y = 0.103 x − 0.452 . By optimizing device parameters of the system, strain measurement accuracy of 3.17 μϵ and the temperature measurement accuracy of 0.45°C have been realized when the optical pulse width is 30 ns. On the other hand, two intrusions have been detected and located simultaneously with this multifunctional system. The results show that the pulse width and the minimum distance between two intrusions ( L min ) have a linear relationship. The theoretical analyses and the experiment results show it is applicable to use this multifunctional system for strain and temperature monitoring, and intrusion detecting.