For pipeline operators, safety and efficiency are paramount but, until now, real-time monitoring has been cumbersome and costly.
With recent technological developments, optical fibers can now move beyond the realm of data transport to function as direct, and fully distributed, sensors. Using the fiber-as-a-sensor approach, operators benefit by installing specialized fiber optic cables along pipelines to gather strain events over great lengths in real-time. Taking advantage of Stimulated Brillouin backscatter (interaction of light with glass materials), DSS cables detect strain variation events associated with lengthy structures like pipelines and bridge spans. Furthermore, using time-of-flight analysis, these events are quickly pinpointed to help operators intervene before catastrophic events occur. Furthermore, interrogation of these fiber sensor cables has never been easier with commercially available Brillouin Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (BOTDR) equipment.
OFS now offers unique DSS cable technology. Our dielectric, outdoor, simplex cables can be epoxied or strapped directly to pipelines or embedded in composite structures. These unique cables are very rugged and include a strain transducing layer that is tuned for compatibility with commercially available BOTDR interrogation equipment.
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