FIBER OPTIC ARRAY HAVING DENSELY SPACED, WEAK REFLECTORS

摘要

A fiber optic sensing system includes a fiber optic sensor having a plurality of densely spaced, non-naturally occurring discrete reflectors having a weak reflectivity of less than 1% and, in some cases, even less than 0.0001% depending on the density of the reflectors. The fiber optic sensor is configured so that the spatial resolution of the backscattered signal generated in response to a probe signal is greater than the separation between at least two discrete reflectors, so that backscatter generated by the at least two reflectors overlaps at the receiver. Data representative of a parameter of interest, such as temperature or strain, can be acquired from the detected backscatter and processed in order to provide information about conditions in a region of interest.