Intelligent fiber sensing system for the oil field area

Abstract

Optical Fiber strain sensor using fiber Bragg grating are poised to play a major role in structural health from military to civil engineering. Fiber Bragg Grating sensor is a practical type of fiber optic sensors. Its measurement is encoded with the wavelength of the optical signal reflected from fiber Bragg grating. The method of measuring the absolute optical wavelength is a critical component of the fiber optic sensing system. To reliably detect very small changes in the environment at the sensor, the interrogation system must provide accurate and repeatable wavelength measurements. Energy sources are increasingly scarce in the world. Getting oil from the oil-wells has become more and more difficult. Therefore, new technology to monitor the oil-well condition has become extremely important. The traditional electrical sensor system is no longer useful because of the down-hole's high temperature and high pressure environment. The optical fiber sensing system is the first choice to monitor this condition. This system will reduce the cost and increase the productivity. In the high pressure and high temperature environment, the traditional packed fiber grating pressure-temperature sensor will be no longer reliability. We have to find a new fiber grating temperature-pressure sensor element and the interrogation system. In this work we use the very narrow bandwidth birefringent fiber grating as the sensing element. We obtain the interrogation system has 0.1 pm resolution.