First measurement of strain distribution along field-installed optical fibers using Brillouin spectroscopy

Abstract

Strain distributions along optical fibers in a 1.3-km-long cable before and after installation are measured using Brillouin optical-fiber time domain analysis. The residual strains in the installed optical fibers were found to vary from zero to 0.07%, depending on the conduit configuration and installation procedure. Strain distribution measurements were carried out on a 24-fiber slotted-core type single-mode optical fiber cable for 1.55- mu m-wavelength transmission, whose length, outer diameter, and weight were 1.3 km, 14 mm, and 0.18 kg/m, respectively. No clear relation between strain distributions and the fiber configuration in the test cable are found.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>