First measurement of strain distribution along field-installed optical fibers using Brillouin spectroscopy

Abstract

The strength of optical fibers is lowered by stress applied to them especially at the point of maximum stress. Hence, it is necessary to measure, not only the average strain value along the whole fiber length(1), but also its spatial distribution, in order to guarantee the long term reliability of optical transmission lines(2). This is the first paper to report on the strain distribution in optical fibers measured using Brillouin Optical-Fiber Time Domain Analysis (BOTDA) (3)(4) both before and after installation into the field conduit.