Optical fiber defect detection using Brillouin optical time domain analyser

Abstract

A new technique for optical fiber defect detection using Brillouin distributed fiber optic sensor (DFOS) has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated in this paper. This technique is based on stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), which offers three wave interaction in single mode optical fiber (SMF -10 μm/125 μm acrylic coated fiber). The nonlinear effect of SBS is manipulated to locate the defect in optical fiber using distributed sensing technology. Various kind of defects may be present in optical fibers. This paper details a case study on observation of a defect, which manifests its presence in certain temperature values. The detail of defect detection through distributed fiber sensor using the SBS has been brought out. SBS is sensitive to temperature and strain. In order to study the effect of defect in distributed fiber sensor as function of temperature and strain, the distributed pre-strained and unstrained optical fiber is subjected to temperature variation and corresponding measurements are obtained with Brillouin optical time domain analyser (BOTDA). This technique enables the utilization of Brillouin parameters, such as decreased amplitude, frequency and increased linewidth in the defect region of the fiber length. The fiber defect location can be determined with spatial resolution accuracy of less than 50 cm of using BOTDA technique.