Cross-border smuggling tunnels enable unmonitored movement of people, drugs and weapons and pose a very serious threat to homeland security. Recently, Klar and Linker (2009) [SPIE paper No. 731603] presented an analytical study of the feasibility of a Brillouin Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (BOTDR) based system for the detection of small sized smuggling tunnels. The current study extends this work by validating the analytical models against real strain measurements in soil obtained from small scale experiments in a geotechnical centrifuge. The soil strains were obtained using an image analysis method that tracked the displacement of discrete patches of soil through a sequence of digital images of the soil around the tunnel during the centrifuge test. The results of the present study are in agreement with those of a previous study which was based on synthetic signals generated using empirical and analytical models from the literature.

Date Published: 5 May 2010
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 7666, Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense IX, 76662A (5 May 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.848748

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7666:
Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense IX
Edward M. Carapezza, Editor(s)