An optical fibre cable for distributed pressure sensing: a proof of concept

In this paper, we describe an optical fibre cable for distributed pressure sensing. The cable structure encodes the local pressure into strain exerted onto a standard optical fibre, embedded inside the cable following a meandering path. The cable has been designed and preliminarily tested by means of optical frequency domain reflectometry. Nonetheless, the cable can be interrogated by any optical fibre distributed strain sensing technique. Up to our knowledge, the proposed cable is the first real distributed fibre optic pressure sensing cable embedding standard fibres, capable of providing high- pressure sensitivity.