Simultaneous Temperature and Acoustic Sensing with Coherent Correlation OTDR

Superimposed temperature variations and dynamic strain applied through a 400 Hz acoustic signal on a 195 m single-mode fiber section are successfully measured using a coherent correlation optical time domain reflectometry as an interrogator.

Optical fiber for remote sensing with high spatial resolution

The use of optical fiber as sensor as well as transmission medium for sensing data is discussed, enabling the use of optically active sensors without power supply at distances of tens of kilometers. Depending on the interrogation system, a spatial resolution of less than a millimeter can be achieved. The basic sensing principle is optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) with direct detection or coherent detection of the Rayleigh back-scattered or Fresnel reflected signal. Spatial resolution is improved by a cross-correlation between the transmitted sequence and the received signals.