Measurement of distributed strain due to laying and recovery of submarine optical fiber cable

Abstract

Strain distribution due to cable laying and recovery is measured, using Brillouin optical fiber time domain analysis in a 3.7-km long submarine optical fiber cable. We believe this is the first time that the residual strain distribution in the recovered submarine cable has been measured. The residual strains measured in some cable sections due to the cable laying and recovery are found to be as small as 0.02 and 0.04%, respectively.