Real-time quasi-distributed fiber optic sensor based on resonance frequency mapping

Distributed optical fiber sensors (DOFS) based on Raman, Brillouin, and Rayleigh scattering have recently attracted considerable attention for various sensing applications, especially large-scale monitoring, owing to their capacity for measuring strain or temperature distributions. However, ultraweak backscatter signals within optical fibers constitute an inevitable problem for DOFS, thereby increasing the burden on the entire system in terms of limited spatial resolution, low measurement speed, high system complexity, or high cost. We propose a novel resonance frequency mapping for a real-time quasi-distributed fiber optic sensor based on identical weak fiber Bragg gratings (FBG), which has stronger reflection signals and high sensitivity to multiple sensing parameters. The resonance configuration, which amplifies optical signals during multiple round-trip propagations, can simply and efficiently address the intrinsic problems in conventional single round-trip measurements for identical weak FBG sensors, such as crosstalk and optical power depletion. Moreover, it is technically feasible to perform individual measurements for a large number of quasi-distributed identical weak FBGs with relatively high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), low crosstalk, and low optical power depletion. By mapping the resonance frequency spectrum, the dynamic response of each identical weak FBG is rapidly acquired in the order of kilohertz, and direct interrogation in real time is possible without time-consuming computation, such as fast Fourier transformation (FFT). This resonance frequency spectrum is obtained on the basis of an all-fiber electro-optic configuration that allows simultaneous measurement of quasi-distributed strain responses with high speed (>5 kHz), high stability (~2.4 με), and high linearity (R(2) = 0.9999).