Equidistance difference optimum method to enhance measuring space of Brillouin optical fiber sensor

Brillouin optic time-domain analysis/reflectometry (BOTDA/R) is a fully distributed optical sensing technique that can provide strain or temperature information along the whole length of a single-mode fiber and has attracted worldwide attentions in recent years. However, both spatial and distance resolution of BOTDA/R are too low to satisfy the measurement of local damage, and enhancing the performance of spatial or distance resolution is considered to be a problem. A novel equidistance difference optimum method is proposed to compensate for the weak spatial and distance resolution of BOTDA/R. The principle of the proposed method is introduced, and two demonstration tests are carried out to validate the local damage detection ability. The experimental results show that the Brillouin optical fiber sensor measuring space can cover any part of the sensor without changing the default values of the Brillouin system, which can greatly enrich the information of measured elements and detect the local damages well.