Ali Masoudi
University of Southampton, UK
Title: Distributed acoustic sensors: Evolution and applications
Biography
Biography: Ali Masoudi
Abstract
The volume of research on distributed optical fibre vibration sensor, also known as distributed acoustic sensor (DAS), has increased substantially in the recent years. DAS systems owe their rising popularity to their capability of mapping vibrations along tens of kilometres of fibre. Sensing fibres can be installed in inaccessible spaces and can be engineered to withstand harsh environmental conditions. The sensing principle of DAS allows the interrogation unit of such systems to be kept at a safe distance while the sensing fibre connected to the interrogation unit can be encapsulated in several protective layers to withstand harsh conditions. The rising demand for DAS systems stem from a number of sectors including structural health monitoring (SHM) in aviation industry and civil engineering, borehole monitoring in geophysical sciences and oil industries, and real-time monitoring of complete rail and road networks for rapid decision and response. In this presentation, the principle of distributed optical fibre vibration sensor is explained. It is shown how different sensing systems use the phase of Rayleigh backscattered light to map vibrations along tens of kilometres of optical fibre. The sensing setup of the DAS system developed at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and its operation is discussed. Finally, the results obtained from a number of field trials such as submarine-cable condition monitoring and traffic monitoring is presented.