Using a tailored-frequency probe, this paper presents a distributed slope-assisted BOTDA (SA-BOTDA) measurement of an optical fiber, bonded to a bent cantilever, where the fiber's static Brillouin Frequency Shift continuously varies along its length by an amount of the order of or larger than the Brillouin bandwidth. While standard SA-BOTDA methods, employing a fixed probe frequency, may suffer from distortions in measuring vibrations around this Brillouininhomogeneous static state, a tailored probe preserves the full dynamic range offered by the slope of Brillouin gain spectrum. The computerized measurement system is capable of real-time continuous monitoring of the strain, including averaging.

Date Published: 2 June 2014
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 9157, 23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors, 9157AM (2 June 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2059571

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9157:
23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors
José M. López-Higuera; Julian D. C. Jones; Manuel López-Amo; José Luis Santos, Editor(s)