Xiaoyi Bao

Tensile and compressive strain measurement in the lab and field with the distributed Brillouin scattering sensor

The structural strain measurement of tension and compression in the steel beam was demonstrated with a distributed fiber-optic sensor system based on Brillouin scattering. The experiments were conducted both in the laboratory and outdoors. When it is in the outdoor environment, the temperature compensation has been taken into account for the strain measurement due to sunlight radiation. The compressive strain has been measured, without needing pretension on the fiber with a Brillouin scattering-based distributed sensor system, when the fiber is glued to the steel beam at every point. The dynamic range in the strain measurement has been increased, due to the elimination of the pretension requirement. The spatial resolution of the strain measurement is 0.5 m. The strain measurement accuracy is /spl plusmn/10 /spl mu//spl epsi/(/spl mu/m/m) in the laboratory environment with nonuniform-distributed strain. With uniform strain distribution, the strain accuracy for this system can be. /spl sim//spl plusmn/5 /spl mu//spl epsi/. These results were achieved with the introductions of a computer-controlled polarization controller, a fast digitizer-signal averager, a pulse duration control, and the electrical optical modulator bias setting in the software.

Characterization of the Brillouin-loss spectrum of single-mode fibers by use of very short (<10-ns) pulses.

The characterization of the Brillouin-loss spectrum of single-mode fibers with very short (<10-ns) pulses has been studied. It was found that the Brillouin-loss signal intensity is linearly related to the duration of the pump pulse used to obtain the spectrum. In contrast with the uniform trend of the signal, three distinct behaviors were observed in the spectral linewidth. At long pulse durations the linewidth was constant at approximately 40 MHz. Pulse durations of the order of the phonon lifetime resulted in a broader spectrum, reaching a maximum width of ~100 MHz at 5 ns. Reducing the pulse duration further resulted in a sudden narrowing of the Brillouin line.

SIMULTANEOUS DISTRIBUTED STRAIN AND TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT

Brillouin-scattering-based sensors are capable of measuring either the strain or the temperature along the length of an optical fiber in a distributed fashion through measurement of the Brillouin-frequency shift. The cross sensitivity of the frequency shift to these two parameters makes it impossible to differentiate between them by measurement of the frequency shift alone. We report on a new technique that permits the simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature to resolutions of +/-178 microepsilon and +/-3.9 degrees C at a spatial resolution of 3.5 m by incorporation of the Brillouin-loss peak power with the conventional Brillouin-frequency measurement.

Analytical and numerical solutions for steady state stimulated Brillouin scattering in a single-mode fiber

Exact (both analytical and numerical) solutions for steady state stimulated Brillouin scattering in single mode optical fibers are presented. The resulting solution is compared with the experiment. The threshold for stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in single mode fibers is examined. Saturation and depletion phenomena are analyzed.

Fast state of polarization changes in aerial fiber under different climatic conditions

The state of polarization (SOP) is measured in aerial fiber during winter and summer. Correlations are made between the SOP changing and the current weather to search for the reason of the fastest SOP fluctuations. The fastest SOP changes are found to be faster than 10 ms, which is limited by the resolution of the measurements.

Spatial resolution enhancement of a Brillouin-distributed sensor using a novel signal processing method

It is known that the ultimate spatial resolution for a Brillouin-based sensor is limited by the lifetime of the phonons in the fiber that mediate the Brillouin loss process. At optical pulse widths less than 10 ns (corresponding to one meter spatial resolution) the Brillouin line width is considerably broadened, causing a severe penalty in resolving the Brillouin frequency shift. Around 5 ns the Brillouin line width is too broad to allow an accurate frequency determination. The fiber optics group at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, has recently developed an automated system for strain measurements in a distributed sensing system that uses a novel signal processing technique to measure strain at resolutions finer than the Brillouin line width limit. Strain has been resolved to 20 /spl mu//spl epsiv/ at 500 mm and to 40 /spl mu//spl epsiv/ at 250 mm.

Structural monitoring by use of a Brillouin distributed sensor

The testing of a fiber-optic distributed-strain sensor attached to a simple structural member is reported. A Brillouin scattering-based sensor system was used to measure both tensile and compressive strains along the length of a cantilever beam subjected to various loads. The sensing fiber was attached to the beam in such a way that some sections experienced uniform strain, whereas others were subjected to a nonuniform strain distribution. A spatial resolution of 0.4 m was used, and a measurement precision of approximately +/-50 microepsilon was achieved.

Time evolution of polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers

The fluctuation of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) due to environmental change is an important issue for fiber-optic communication systems. We measure the time evolution of PMD for installed aerial and buried cables and for a spooled fiber in a temperature controlled chamber. The results show that PMD fluctuates much more rapidly for aerial cables than for buried cables. The magnitude of PMD is different for the three fibers and our results also show that the magnitude of PMD fluctuation depends on the magnitude of the PMD.

Polarization mode dispersion and polarization dependent loss for a pulse in single-mode fibers

Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and polarization dependent loss (PDL) for a pulse in optical fibers are calculated with a model of two concatenated fibers. Each of the two fibers has both elliptical birefringence and PDL. The results show that the PMD and PDL for a short pulse can be very different from those for a narrow-band pulse in optical fibers. Two anomalous results are reported: (1) the effective PDL for a pulse can be smaller than the PDL difference of the two fibers and (2) the effective PMD for a pulse can be either larger than the sum of the differential group delays (DGDs) of the two fibers or less than the DGD difference of the two fibers, depending on the input pulsewidth. The pulse distortions when the pulses are launched into the two principal states of polarization (PSPs) are discussed.

Statistics of polarization mode dispersion in presence of the polarization dependent loss in single mode fibers

The authors present a simulation result for the statistics of the polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in the presence of the polarization dependent loss (PDL) in a single mode fiber. It is shown, in the presence of strong PDL fluctuations, that the PMD probability density distribution function can deviate significantly from the well-known Maxwell distribution function.