Feature Extraction and Identification in Distributed Optical-Fiber Vibration Sensing System for Oil Pipeline Safety Monitoring

High sensitivity of a distributed optical-fiber vibration sensing （DOVS） system based on the phase-sensitivity optical time domain reflectometry （Ф-OTDR） technology also brings in high nuisance alarm rates （NARs） in real applications. In this paper, feature extraction methods of wavelet decomposition （WD） and wavelet packet decomposition （WPD） are comparatively studied for three typical field testing signals, and an artificial neural network （ANN） is built for the event identification. The comparison results prove that the WPD performs a little better than the WD for the DOVS signal analysis and identification in oil pipeline safety monitoring. The identification rate can be improved up to 94.4%, and the nuisance alarm rate can be effectively controlled as low as 5.6% for the identification network with the wavelet packet energy distribution features.

Distributed Weak Fiber Bragg Grating Vibration Sensing System Based on 3 × 3 Fiber Coupler

A novel distributed weak fiber Bragg gratings （FBGs） vibration sensing system has been designed to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional methods for optical fiber sensing networking, which are： low signal intensity in the usually adopted time-division multiplexing （TDM） technology, insufficient quantity of multiplexed FBGs in the wavelength-division multiplexing （WDM） technology, and that the mixed WDM/TDM technology measures only the physical parameters of the FBG locations but cannot perform distributed measurement over the whole optical fiber. This novel system determines vibration events in the optical fiber line according to the intensity variation of the interference signals between the adjacent weak FBG reflected signals and locates the vibration points accurately using the TDM technology. It has been proven by tests that this system performs vibration signal detection and demodulation in a way more convenient than the conventional methods for the optical fiber sensing system. It also measures over the whole optical fiber, therefore, distributed measurement is fulfilled, and the system locating accuracy is up to 20m, capable of detecting any signals of whose drive signals lower limit voltage is 0.2 V while the frequency range is 3 Hz - 1 000 Hz. The system has the great practical significance and application value for perimeter surveillance systems.

A fully self-powered, natural-light-enabled fiber-optic vibration sensing solution

Fiber-optic sensors have been developed to monitor the structural vibration with advantages of high sensitivity,immunity to electromagnetic interference(EMI),flexibility,and capability to achieve multiplexed or distributed sensing.However,the current fiber-optic sensors require precisely polarized coherent lasers as the lighting sources,which are expensive in cost and suffer from the power supply issues while operating at outdoor environments.This work aims at solving these issues,through developing a fully self-powered,natural-light-enabled approach.To achieve that,a spring oscillator-based triboelectric nanogenerator(TENG),a polymer network liquid crystal(PNLC),and an optical fiber were integrated.The external vibration drove the PNLC to switch its transparency,allowing the varia-tion of the incident natural light in the optical fiber.Compared with the majority of conventional TENG-based active vibration sensors,the developed paradigm does not suffer from the EMI,without requirements of the signal preamplifica-tion which consumes additional energy.The vibration displacement monitoring was performed to validate the sensing effectiveness of the developed paradigm.

Flexible triboelectric nanogenerator toward ultrahigh-frequency vibration sensing

Flexible high-frequency vibration sensors are highly desirable in various real-world applications such as structural health monitoring,environmental monitoring,and the internet of things.However,developing a facile and effective method to fabricate vibration sensors simultaneously featuring high vibration frequency response-ability and flexibility remains a grand challenge.Herein,we report a flexible ultrahigh-frequency triboelectric vibration sensor(UTVS)prepared by a layer-particle-layer structure.Owing to the flexibility of the materials(i.e.,polyethylene terephthalate membrane)and the ultrahigh-frequency vibration response-ability of internal microparticles,the flexible UTVS exhibits an enhanced working frequency range of 3–170 kHz,which is much broader than previously reported triboelectric vibration sensors.Moreover,the UTVS can work not only in a flat state but also in a bent state due to its flexibility and the unique layer-particle-layer structural design.The UTVS shows nanometer-level vibration response-ability,omnidirectional response,stability in the temperature range of 10–70°C,good frequency resolution of 0.01 kHz,and excellent performance in burst vibration detection(e.g.,pencil lead break events and impact events from falling steel balls).With a collection of compelling features,the device is successfully demonstrated in vibration monitoring of curved structures(e.g.,real-time water pipeline leak monitoring).Such a flexible ultrahigh-frequency triboelectric vibration sensor holds great potential in a wide range of practical applications,such as communication,health care,and infrastructure monitoring.

Estimating Mechanical Vibration Period Using Smartphones

Driven by a wide range of real-world applications,significant efforts have recently been made to explore facile vibration measurement.Traditional vibration inspection systems are normally sensed via accelerometers,laser displacement sensors or velocimeters,and most of them are neither non-intrusive nor wide-spread.This paper presents a novel solution based on acoustic waves of commercial mobile phones to inspect mechanical vibration.The core observation is that the Doppler effect occurs when acoustic waves pass through a vibrating object.The study leverages this opportunity to build a bridge between the Doppler frequency excursion and the vibrating frequency of objects.The solution of difference operation of the reassignment vector is used to make time-frequency domain images more readable.Finally,by processing time-frequency images,the system further accomplishes two reconstruction approaches to find out the energy concentration of acoustic signals respectively based on ridges and clustering.Simulation and real-life applications are employed to show the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed approaches.Our prototype system can inspect the vibration period with a relative error of 0.08%.Furthermore,this paper studies two practical cases in life to associate our measurement solution with the requirements of daily life.

Practical Pattern Recognition System for Distributed Optical Fiber Intrusion Monitoring Based on Ф-COTDR

At present, the demand for perimeter security system is in-creasing greatly, especially for such system based on distribut-ed optical fiber sensing. This paper proposes a perimeter se-curity monitoring system based on phase-sensitive coherentoptical time domain reflectometry(Ф-COTDR) with the practi-cal pattern recognition function. We use fast Fourier trans-form(FFT) to exact features from intrusion events and a multi-class classification algorithm derived from support vector ma-chine(SVM) to work as a pattern recognition technique. Fivedifferent types of events are classified by using a classifica-tion algorithm based on SVM through a three-dimensional fea-ture vector. Moreover, the identification results of the patternrecognition system show that an identification accurate rate of92.62% on average can be achieved.

One-step and Continuous Fabrication of Coaxial Piezoelectric Fiber for Sensing Application

Although there has been rapid advancement in piezoelectric sensors,challenges still remain in developing wearable piezoelectric sensors by a one-step,continuous and environmentally friendly method.In this work,a 1D flexible coaxial piezoelectric fiber was directly fabricated by melt extrusion molding,whose core and sheath layer are respectively slender steel wire(i.e.,electrode)and PVDF(i.e.,piezoelectric layer).Moreover,such 1D flexible coaxial piezoelectric fiber possesses short response time and high sensitivity,which can be used as a selfpowered sensor for bending and vibration sensing.More interestingly,such 1D flexible coaxial piezoelectric fiber(1D-PFs)can be further endowed with 3D helical structure.Moreover,a wearable and washable motion monitoring system can be constructed via braiding such 3D helical piezoelectric fiber(3D-PF)into commercial textiles.This work paves a new way for developing 1D and 3D piezoelectric fibers through a one-step,continuous and environmentally friendly method,showing potential applications in the field of sensing and wearable electronics.

Galloping Vibration Monitoring of Overhead Transmission Lines by Chirped FBG Array

A distributed online fiber sensing system based on the phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer(Φ-OTDR)enhanced by the drawing tower fiber Bragg grating(FBG)array is presented and investigated experimentally for monitoring the galloping of overhead transmission lines.The chirped FBG array enhanced Φ-OTDR sensing system can be used to measure the galloping behavior of the overhead transmission lines(optical phase conductor or optical power ground wire),which are helpful for monitoring the frequency response characteristics of the ice-induced galloping,evaluating the motion tendencies of these cables,and avoiding the risk of flashover during galloping.The feasibility of the proposed online monitoring system is demonstrated through a series of experiments at the Special Optical Fiber Cable Laboratory of State Grid Corporation of China(Beijing,China).Results show that the proposed system is effective and reliable for the monitoring of galloping shape and characteristic frequency,which can predict the trend of destructive vibration behavior and avoid the occurrence of cable breaking and tower toppling accidents,and these features are essential for the safety operation in smart grids.

Distributed Vibration Sensor With Laser Phase-Noise Immunity by Phase-Extraction φ-OTDR

We have demonstrated a distributed vibration sensor based on phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer (φ-OTDR) system exhibiting immunity to the laser phase noise. Two laser sources with different linewidth and phase noise levels are used in the φ-OTDR system, respectively. Based on the phase noise power spectrum density of both lasers, the laser phase is almost unchanged during an extremely short period of time, hence, the impact of phase noise can be suppressed effectively through phase difference between the Rayleigh scattered light from two adjacent sections of the fiber which define the gauge length. Based on the phase difference method, the external vibration can be located accurately at 41.01 km by the(φ-OTDR system incorporating these two lasers. Meanwhile, the average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the retrieved vibration signal by using Laser I is found to be -37.7 dB, which is comparable to that of -37.5 dB by using Laser II although the linewidth and the phase noise level of the two lasers are distinct. The obtained results indicate that the phase difference method can enhance the performance of(φ-OTDR system with laser phase-noise immunity for distributed vibration sensing, showing potential application in oil-gas pipeline monitoring, perimeter security, and other fields.

High-Speed Mach-Zehnder-OTDR Distributed Optical Fiber Vibration Sensor Using Medium-Coherence Laser

This article presents a high-speed distributed vibration sensing based on Mach-Zehnder-OTDR （optical time-domain reflectometry）. Ultra-weak fiber Bragg gratings （UWFBG）, whose backward light intensity is 2-4 orders of magnitude higher than that of Rayleigh scattering, are used as the reflection markers. A medium-coherence laser can substitute conventional narrow bandwidth source to achieve an excellent performance of distributed vibration sensing since our unbalanced interferometer matches the interval of UWFBGs. The 3 m of spatial resolution of coherent detection and multiple simultaneous vibration sources locating can be realized based on OTDR. The enhanced signal to noise ratio （SNR） enables fast detection of distributed vibration without averaging. The fastest vibration of 25 kHz and the slowest vibration of 10Hz can be detected with our system successfully, and the linearity is 0.9896 with a maximum deviation of 3.46nε.

Distributed Fiber Optic Interferometric Geophone System Based on Draw Tower Gratings

A distributed fiber optic interferometric geophone array based on draw tower grating （DTG） array is proposed. The DTG geophone array is made by the DTG array fabricated based on a near-contact exposure through a phase mask during the fiber drawing process. A distributed sensing system with 96 identical DTGs in an equal separation of 20 m and an unbalanced Michelson interferometer for vibration measurement has been experimentally validated compared with a moving-coil geophone. The experimental results indicate that the sensing system can linearly demodulate the phase shift. Compared with the moving coil geophone, the fiber optic sensing system based on DTG has higher signal-to-noise ratio at low frequency.