Pipeline Geohazard Risk Monitoring With Optical Fiber Distributed Sensors: Experience With Andean and Arctic Routes

Author(s):  
Fabien Ravet ◽  
Fabien Briffod ◽  
Sanghoon Chin ◽  
Etienne Rochat ◽  
Jean-Grégoire Martinez

Many pipelines are built in regions affected by harsh environmental conditions where changes in soil texture between winter and summer increase the likelihood of hazards. Pipeline routes also cross mountains that are characterized by steep slopes and unstable soils as in the Andes and along the coastal range of Brazil. In other cases, these pipelines are laid in remote areas with significant seismic activity or exposure to permafrost. Depending on weather conditions and location, visual inspection is difficult or even impossible and therefore remote sensing solutions for pipes offer significant advantages over conventional inspection techniques. Optical fibers can help solve these challenges. Optical fiber based geotechnical and structural monitoring use distributed measurement of strain and temperature thanks to the sensitivity of Brillouin scattering to mechanical and thermal effects. The analysis of scattering combined with a time domain technique allows the measurement of strain and temperature profiles. Temperature measurement is carried out to monitor soil erosion or dune migration through event quantification and spatial location. Direct measurement of strain in the soil also improves the detection of environmental hazards. As an example, the technology can pinpoint the early signs of landslides. In some cases, actual pipe deformation must be monitored such as in the case of an active tectonic fault crossing. Pipe deformation monitoring operation is achieved by the measurement of distributed strain along fiber sensors attached to the structure. This paper comprehensively reviews over 15 years of continuous development of pipeline geohazard risk monitoring with optical fiber distributed sensors from technology qualification and validation to its implementation in real cases as well as its successful continuous operation. Case studies presented include pipeline monitoring in Arctic and Siberian environment as well as in the Andes which illustrate how the technology is used and demonstrate proof of early detection and location of geohazard events such as erosion, landslide, settlement and pipe deformation.

Author(s):  
Fabien Ravet ◽  
Marc Niklès ◽  
Etienne Rochat

Many pipelines are built in regions affected by harsh environmental conditions where changes in soil texture between winter and summer increase the likelihood of risks. Pipeline routes also cross the mountains that are characterized by steep slopes and unstable soils as in the Andes and along the coastal range of Brazil. In other cases, these pipelines are laid in remote areas with significant seismic activity or exposure to permafrost. Depending on weather conditions and location, visual inspection is difficult or even impossible and therefore remote sensing solutions for pipes offer significant advantages over conventional inspection techniques. Optical fibers can help solve these challenges. Optical fiber based geotechnical and structural monitoring use distributed measurement of strain and temperature thanks to the sensitivity of Brillouin scattering to mechanical and thermal stresses. The analysis of scattering combined with a time domain technique allows the measurement of strain and temperature profiles. Temperature measurement is carried out to control soil erosion or dune migration through event quantification and spatial location. Direct measurement of strain in the soil also improves the detection of environmental hazards. As an example the technology can pinpoint the early signs of landslide. In some cases, pipe actual deformation must be monitored such as in case of active tectonic fault crossing. Pipe deformation monitoring operation is achieved by the measurement of distributed strain along fiber sensors attached to the structure. This paper comprehensively reviews over 10 years of continuous development from technology qualification and validation to its implementation in real cases as well as its successful continuous operation. Case studies present pipeline monitoring in Arctic and Siberian environment as well as in the Andes. They illustrate how the technology is used and demonstrate proof of early detection and location of events such as erosion, landslide, subsidence and pipe deformation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dragic ◽  
John Ballato

Specialty optical fibers employed in Brillouin-based distributed sensors are briefly reviewed. The optical and acoustic waveguide properties of silicate glass optical fiber first are examined with the goal of constructing a designer Brillouin gain spectrum. Next, materials and their effects on the relevant Brillouin scattering properties are discussed. Finally, optical fiber configurations are reviewed, with attention paid to fibers for discriminative or other enhanced sensing configurations. The goal of this brief review is to reinforce the importance of fiber design to distributed sensor systems, generally, and to inspire new thinking in the use of fibers for this sensing application.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Marie Henault ◽  
Gautier Moreau ◽  
Sylvain Blairon ◽  
Jean Salin ◽  
Jean-Robert Courivaud ◽  
...  

Although optical fiber sensors have been developed for 30 years, there is a gap between lab experiments and field applications. This article focuses on specific methods developed to evaluate the whole sensing chain, with an emphasis on (i) commercially-available optoelectronic instruments and (ii) sensing cable. A number of additional considerations for a successful pairing of these two must be taken into account for successful field applications. These considerations are further developed within this article and illustrated with practical applications of water leakage detection in dikes and concrete structures monitoring, making use of distributed temperature and strain sensing based on Rayleigh, Raman, and Brillouin scattering in optical fibers. They include an adequate choice of working wavelengths, dedicated localization processes, choices of connector type, and further include a useful selection of traditional reference sensors to be installed nearby the optical fiber sensors, as well as temperature compensation in case of strain sensing.


2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (04) ◽  
pp. 701-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
YING GAO ◽  
SHIMING GAO

An all-optical premodulation-free microwave frequency up/down-conversion method is presented based on stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers for bidirection radio-over-fiber systems. Through optical heterodyning between the modulated optical carrier and the Stokes light, the microwave signal of 1.5 GHz is up-converted to 9 and 12 GHz, and the microwave signal of 9 GHz is down-converted to 1.5 GHz. The unexpected microwaves are more than 7 dB suppressed by loading the signal to convert with the optical-carrier-suppressed modulation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Zhao ◽  
Xianlong Yi ◽  
Junrong Zhang ◽  
Chengyuan Lin

Serious landslide hazards are prevalent along the Yangtze River in China, particularly in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. Thus, landslide monitoring and forecasting technology research is critical if landslide geological hazards are to be prevented and controlled. Pulse-prepump brillouin optical time domain analysis (PPP-BOTDA) distributed optical fiber sensing technology is a recently developed monitoring method with evident advantages in precision and spatial resolution. Herein, fixed-point immobilization and direct burying methods were adopted to arrange parallel distribution of the strain and temperature-compensated optical fibers along the Baishuihe landslide’s front edge, in order to carry out ground surface deformation monitoring. The strain data acquired from both optical fibers were processed with temperature compensation to obtain the actual optical fiber strain produced by deformation. Butterworth low-pass filter denoising method was employed to determine the filter order (n) and cut-off frequency (Wn). The area differences between the two optical fiber monitoring curves and the fixed horizontal axis were selected as evaluation indexes to obtain the area difference along the optical fiber. This data were then leveraged to determine the positive correlation between the area difference and the optical fiber strain variation degree. Finally, these results were compared with the GPS and field measured data. This study shows that when PPP-BOTDA technology is used for landslide surface deformation monitoring in conjunction with Butterworth filter denoising and strain area difference, the optical fiber strain variation degree analysis results are consistent with the GPS monitoring data and the actual landslide deformation. As such, this methodology is highly relevant for reducing the workload and improving the monitoring precision in landslide monitoring, which in turn will protect lives and property.


2012 ◽  
Vol E95.B (8) ◽  
pp. 2638-2641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makoto YAMADA ◽  
Akisumi TOMOE ◽  
Takahiro KINOSHITA ◽  
Osanori KOYAMA ◽  
Yutaka KATUYAMA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 3254
Author(s):  
Marco Pisco ◽  
Francesco Galeotti

The realization of advanced optical fiber probes demands the integration of materials and structures on optical fibers with micro- and nanoscale definition. Although researchers often choose complex nanofabrication tools to implement their designs, the migration from proof-of-principle devices to mass production lab-on-fiber devices requires the development of sustainable and reliable technology for cost-effective production. To make it possible, continuous efforts are devoted to applying bottom-up nanofabrication based on self-assembly to decorate the optical fiber with highly ordered photonic structures. The main challenges still pertain to “order” attainment and the limited number of implementable geometries. In this review, we try to shed light on the importance of self-assembled ordered patterns for lab-on-fiber technology. After a brief presentation of the light manipulation possibilities concerned with ordered structures, and of the new prospects offered by aperiodically ordered structures, we briefly recall how the bottom-up approach can be applied to create ordered patterns on the optical fiber. Then, we present un-attempted methodologies, which can enlarge the set of achievable structures, and can potentially improve the yielding rate in finely ordered self-assembled optical fiber probes by eliminating undesired defects and increasing the order by post-processing treatments. Finally, we discuss the available tools to quantify the degree of order in the obtained photonic structures, by suggesting the use of key performance figures of merit in order to systematically evaluate to what extent the pattern is really “ordered”. We hope such a collection of articles and discussion herein could inspire new directions and hint at best practices to fully exploit the benefits inherent to self-organization phenomena leading to ordered systems.


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