Improvements and applications of distributed optical fibre sensing

通信系统中使用的标准光纤也可用于传感光纤长度超过千米的温度和应变。通过将纤维附着在桥梁等结构上或将其埋在栅栏上，使用适当的仪器可以检测到桥梁上或在栅栏附近行走的人的变化压力。因此，就有了一种持续监测桥梁健康状况的手段，从而可以预防灾害。以类似的方式，埋在地下的纤维上产生的菌株可以被检测到，并被报告为安全区域的入侵者。这些都是这项新兴技术的传统应用，在这项拟议的研究中，我们将开发新的传感器和应用，提高仪器性能，并显著降低仪器成本，从而实现更小的应用。

The standard optical fibre used in communications systems can also be used for sensing temperature and strain over kilometer lengths of the fibre. By attaching the fibre to structures such as bridges or burying it along fences, with suitable instruments the changing strain on the bridge or a person walking near the fence can be detected. Thus a means to continuously monitor the health of a bridge is available which can prevent disaster. In a similar fashion the strain created on a buried fibre can be detected and reported as an intruder in a secure area. These are traditional applications of this emerging technology and in this proposed research we will develop new sensors and applications, improve the instrument performance, and significantly reduce the instrument cost which will enable much smaller applications.