A CDM-WDM Interrogation Scheme for Massive Serial FBG Sensor Networks

Abstract

Structural health monitoring and other smart structures gain an increased attention which can be satisfied by the quasi-distributed optical sensing approach. Serial fiber optic sensors, such as fiber-Bragg gratings (FBGs) provide among others small size, immunity to electro-magnetic interference, an accurate sensing accuracy and a high multiplexing capability to increase the amount of sensing points in an optical sensor network. Different multiplexing approaches demonstrated a limited number of FBGs, such as time-division multiplex, optical frequency domain refractometry or frequency shifted interferometry. This work introduces a code-division multiplex (CDM) - wavelength-division multiplex (WDM) interrogator for massive serial FBG sensor networks. The interrogation of 4000 serial sensors in a network with a length of 113m, 200 identical WDM sections over a length of 200m and a network with 1000 sensors and a length of 1.6km show a massive multiplexing capability of up to 16000 sensors and possible network lengths of several kilometers. Strain measurements with FBGs in rear sections prove the sensing applicability of the CDM-WDM scheme.