High precision, high sensitivity distributed displacement and temperature measurements using OFDR-based phase tracking

Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry is used to measure distributed displacement and temperature change with very high sensitivity and precision by measuring the phase change of an optical fiber sensor as a function of distance with high spatial resolution and accuracy. A fiber containing semi-continuous Bragg gratings was used as the sensor. The effective length change, or displacement, in the fiber caused by small temperature changes was measured as a function of distance with a precision of 2.4 nm and a spatial resolution of 1.5 mm. The temperature changes calculated from this displacement were measured with precision of 0.001 C with an effective sensor gauge length of 12 cm. These results demonstrate that the method employed of continuously tracking the phase change along the length of the fiber sensor enables high resolution distributed measurements that can be used to detect very small displacements, temperature changes, or strains.