Optic fibres and fibre optic sensing
AssigneeOptasense Holdings Limited
InventorsDavid John Hill, Magnus McEwen-King, Roger Ian Crickmore
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Abstract
Fibre optic cables with improved performance for use in distributed sensing, for instance in distributed acoustic sensors, are disclosed. In one embodiment a fibre optic cable (210) comprises a core (208) and cladding (206) disposed within a buffer material (202) and surrounded by a jacket (204) and arranged so that the core is offset from the centre of the cable. By offsetting the core from the centre of the jacket any bending effects on the core can be maximised compared with the core being located at the centre of the cable.
Claims37
An optical fibre comprising a core, a cladding surrounding the core and a jacket surrounding the cladding wherein the core is offset from the centre of the optical fibre.
A distributed acoustic fibre optic sensor comprising an optical source coupled to a first optical fibre of a fibre optic cable to interrogate said first optical fibre with optical radiation and a detector coupled to said first optical fibre to detect radiation which is back-scattered from said first optical fibre wherein said fibre optic cable comprises a plurality of optical fibres and wherein the first optical fibre is located towards the edge of the fibre optic cable.
(canceled)
A distributed fibre optic sensor comprising an optical source coupled to an optical fibre to transit optical radiation into said fibre, a detector arranged to detect radiation back-scattered from said fibre and a processor to process the back-scattered radiation to provide a plurality of discrete longitudinal sensing portions of said fibre wherein the optical source is coupled to said optical fibre such that radiation transmitted into said fibre is offset from the centre of the core of the optical fibre.
An optical fibre comprising, at one end, a fibre optic coupler wherein the fibre optic coupler is arranged to couple optical radiation to or from the core region of the optical fibre, wherein the point of focus of the fibre optic coupler is offset from the centre of the core region of the optical fibre.
A distributed acoustic fibre optic sensor comprising an optical source coupled to a fibre optic cable to transit optical radiation into said fibre optic cable, a detector arranged to detect radiation Rayleigh back-scattered from said fibre optic cable wherein the fibre optic cable comprises at least one optical fibre and at least one gel filled region.
(canceled)
A fibre optic having a stiffness in a first transverse direction that is greater than the stiffness in a second transverse direction, the second transverse direction being different to the first transverse direction.
A distributed fibre optic sensor comprising an optical source coupled to an optical fibre for transmitting optical radiation into the optical fibre and a detector coupled to the optical fibre to detect optical radiation back-scattered from the optical fibre wherein the optical fibre has a relatively high degree of inhomogenities and a relatively high numerical aperture.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.