Integrated hybrid Raman/fiber Bragg grating interrogation scheme for distributed temperature and point dynamic strain measurements

We propose and experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of an integrated hybrid optical fiber sensing interrogation technique that efficiently combines distributed Raman-based temperature sensing with fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based dynamic strain measurements. The proposed sensing system is highly integrated, making use of a common optical source/receiver block and exploiting the advantages of both (distributed and point) sensing technologies simultaneously. A multimode fiber is used for distributed temperature sensing, and a pair of FBGs in each discrete sensing point, partially overlapped in the spectral domain, allows for temperature-independent discrete strain measurements. Experimental results report a dynamic strain resolution of 7.8 n epsilon/root Hz within a full range of 1700 mu epsilon and a distributed temperature resolution of 1 degrees C at 20 km distance with 2.7 m spatial resolution.