Abstract
The use of a fiber optic quasi-distributed sensing technique for detecting the location and severity of water leakage is suggested. A novel fiber optic sensor probe is devised with a vessel of water absorption material called as water combination soil (WCS) located between two highly reflected connectors: one is a reference connector and the other is a sensing connector. In this study, the sensing output is calculated from the reflected light signals of the two connectors. The first reflected light signal is a reference and the second is a sensing signal which is attenuated by the optical fiber bending loss due to the WCS expansion absorbing water. Also, the bending loss of each sensor probe is determined by referring to the total number of sensor probes and the total power budget of an entire system. We have investigated several probe characteristics to show the design feasibility of the novel fiber sensor probe. The effects of vessel sizes of the probes on the water detection sensitivity are studied. The largest vessel probe provides the highest sensitivity of 0.267 dB/mL, while the smallest shows relatively low sensitivity of 0.067 dB/mL, and unstable response. The sensor probe with a high output value provides a high sensitivity with various detection levels while the number of total installable sensor probes decreases.
Highlights
IntroductionFiber optic sensors can be used to monitor large structures such as bridges, dams, pipelines, etc
Fiber optic sensors can be used to monitor large structures such as bridges, dams, pipelines, etc.They can provide long distance sensing solutions with many measurement points through one optical fiber line in a technique known as distributed sensing, which is very unique for fiber optic sensing technologies [1]
Distributed sensing techniques are usually implemented by a sensing optical fiber which can sense some external disturbance influencing any location on the fiber
Summary
Fiber optic sensors can be used to monitor large structures such as bridges, dams, pipelines, etc. Various fiber optic sensors have been developed by utilizing hydrogels [5], polyacrylic acid polymers [6], and the mechanical macro-bending technique [7]. These can be implemented by a configuration of quasi-distributed sensing techniques for multi-sensor systems. OTDR measurements allow locating and detecting water leak events from the sharp drops of backscattered light [14] These light scattered techniques based on OTDR should usually detect small and short backscattered lights which limit the dynamic ranges of sensors [15]. A link budget is analyzed to investigate how an entire sensor system can be designed to satisfy the demands of users
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