Distributed acoustic sensing system with propagation direction and related methods
AssigneeEagle Technology, LLC
InventorsStephen J. Bauman, Christin Lundgren
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A DAS system may include an OTDR, and acoustic-sensing optical fibers coupled to the OTDR. The acoustic-sensing optical fibers may have known relative positions within an acoustic wave transmitting medium. The DAS system may also include a processor cooperating with the OTDR to determine a propagation direction of an acoustic wave from an acoustic event in the acoustic wave transmitting medium based upon the known relative positions of the acoustic-sensing optical fibers.
Claims11
A distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) system comprising:
- an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR);
- an optical switch;
- a plurality of acoustic-sensing optical fibers each selectively coupled to the OTDR via the optical switch, the plurality of acoustic-sensing optical fibers having known relative positions within an acoustic wave transmitting medium;
- and
- a processor cooperating with the OTDR to determine a propagation direction of an acoustic wave from an acoustic event in the acoustic wave transmitting medium based upon the known relative positions of the plurality of acoustic-sensing optical fibers;
- the processor configured to
- detect the acoustic wave from the acoustic event via a given acoustic-sensing optical fiber,
- cause the optical switch to switch from the given acoustic-sensing optical fiber to a different acoustic-sensing optical fiber before the acoustic wave from the acoustic event reaches the different acoustic-sensing optical fiber, and
- detect, subsequent to the detection via the given acoustic-sensing optical fiber, the acoustic wave from the acoustic event via the different acoustic-sensing optical fiber.
A distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) device comprising:
- an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) and an associated optical switch to selectively couple each of a plurality of acoustic-sensing optical fibers having known relative positions within an acoustic wave transmitting medium to the OTDR;
- and
- a processor configured to determine a propagation direction of an acoustic wave from an acoustic event in the acoustic wave transmitting medium based upon the known relative positions of the plurality of acoustic-sensing optical fibers;
- the processor configured to
- detect the acoustic wave from the acoustic event via a given acoustic-sensing optical fiber,
- selectively cause the optical switch to switch from the given acoustic-sensing optical fiber to a different acoustic-sensing optical fiber before the acoustic wave from the acoustic event reaches the different acoustic-sensing optical fiber, and
- detect, subsequent to the detection via the given acoustic-sensing optical fiber, the acoustic wave from the acoustic event via the different acoustic-sensing optical fiber.
A method of operating a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) device using a plurality of acoustic-sensing optical fibers having known relative positions within an acoustic wave transmitting medium, the method comprising:
- operating an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) in cooperation with a processor to determine a propagation direction of an acoustic wave from an acoustic event in the acoustic wave transmitting medium based upon the known relative positions of the plurality of acoustic-sensing optical fibers;
- detecting the acoustic wave from the acoustic event via a given acoustic-sensing optical fiber, and causing an optical switch to switch from the given acoustic-sensing optical fiber to a different acoustic-sensing optical fiber before the acoustic wave from the acoustic event reaches the different acoustic-sensing optical fiber;
- and
- detecting, subsequent to the detecting via the given acoustic-sensing optical fiber, the acoustic wave from the acoustic event via the different acoustic-sensing optical fiber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.