Fiber-optic brillouin distributed sensors: from dynamic to long-range measurements

This chapter focuses on Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) sensors because they are the most successful Brillouin distributed sensors (BDS) type in terms of performance and practical applications. Distributed sensor featuring can be done in the time, coherence, or frequency domains, giving rise to the three main analysis BDS types: BOTDA, Brillouin optical correlation-domain analysis (BOCDA), and Brillouin optical frequency-domain analysis (BOFDA). The distance range of measurements performed using a BOTDA sensor is given by the length of sensing fiber that the system is able to measure with a specified performance in terms of measurement precision and time. The chapter reviews the fundamentals and the research directions in BDSs. The applications of the technology are multiple and in diverse fields¿for instance, in the oil and gas industry, where BDSs have been applied to measure temperature and strain along the umbilical cables used for subsea wells.