Industrial Applications of the BOTDR Optical Fiber Strain Sensor

✍ Scribed by Hiroshige Ohno; Hiroshi Naruse; Mitsuru Kihara; Akiyoshi Shimada

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 686 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1068-5200
• DOI: 10.1006/ofte.2000.0344

✦ Synopsis

The Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometer BOTDR is a distributed optical fiber strain sensor whose operation is based on Brillouin scattering, and BOTDR equipment has been developed for practical use in the field of civil engineering. This equipment can measure continuous strain along an optical fiber over a distance of 10 km. Because of this advantage, it has been expected that BOTDRs would be used to detect deformations or diagnose problems in large-scale structures such as buildings, tunnels, and levees. In fact, a number of feasibility studies on the use of BOTDRs have been undertaken.

This paper describes the principle of strain measurement using a BOTDR and its basic configuration. Then we introduce recent examples where BOTDRs have been applied to actual structures. We describe results of three field tests, namely, as a damage-detection system for America's Cup yachts, as an optical fiber sensor for detecting changes in river levees, and as a strain-sensing optical fiber embedded in concrete structures.