Detection of defects and damages due to aging and transient events are important contributors to pipeline accidents and monitoring them together is challenging. In this work, we demonstrate an intelligent fiber-optic acoustic sensor system for pipeline monitoring that enables real-time recognition, and classification of defects and transient threats together by analyzing the combined acoustic NDE data from the ultrasonic guidedwaves and acoustic emission methods. A 6"carbon-steel pipeline (16-ft long, SCH40) having multiple structural defects (weld and corrosion) is used with multiplexed optical fiber sensors as acoustic receivers attached to the pipe for ultrasonic GW monitoring to identifying structural defects and transient event (intrusion and impact) detection by the spontaneous acoustic emission method. Finally, we discussed our strategy to apply the convolutional neural network (CNN) model to the acoustic NDE data obtained by two methods to realize an accurate and automated pipeline health monitoring solution.
Fiber optic sensors show many advantages as compared to other alternatives for a wide range of energy applications spanning electrical grid, pipelines, and civil infrastructure monitoring amongst others. Multimode interference-based fiber optic sensor configuration is one device architecture that is being explored for a range of different analytes, and which is fabricated by sandwiching a section of multimode fiber between two single mode fibers. Fiber optic devices based on multimode interference (MMI) are easy to fabricate and offer attractive prospects for applications in the areas of optical communication and fiber lasers as well as sensing. When light is coupled from a single mode fiber to a multimode fiber (MMF), multiple modes supported by the MMF are excited and interfere with each other, giving rise to an interference pattern along the MMF length. At specific positions along the axis of the MMF, light is concentrated and forms replicas of the input field which are known as self-images, with the self-imaging condition providing a narrow-band interference feature as a function of wavelength that is also affected by a wide range of analytes for sensing purposes. The self-images formed are simulated here using commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics. Sensitivity to a range of different analytes including refractive index, strain and hydrogen gas is explored. Optical fiber sensors based upon multimode interferometer sensors are investigated as attractive sensing options for infrastructure monitoring applications.
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of pipelines using nondestructive testing/evaluation (NDT/E) techniques is important particularly for the energy industries and for the oil/gas distribution which helps reduction in maintenance costs as well as increased service lifespan. Among various NDE techniques, ultrasonic guidedwaves (GWs) technique is popular for inspection and monitoring of pipes due to its advantages e.g., long-distance monitoring using a fixed sensor probe, full volumetric coverage, and inspection for invisible or inaccessible structure. Recently, performance and scope of the GWs method is explored using optical fiber sensing technology such as fiber Bragg gratings are demonstrated for many ultrasonic sensing applications. The optical fiber sensors bring the advantage of remote sensing, large acoustic bandwidth, and multiplexing capability of the sensors to extend the range of GWs based NDE method. This work describes the health monitoring of damaged pipeline structure in a nondestructive manner using alternative No-core fiber (NCF) based quasi-distributed fiber-optic acoustic sensor combined with ultrasonic GWs excitation. We set up two similar 6-inch carbon-steel pipes (16-ft long), one consists of various defects and the other is healthy without any defect for reference. The pipes are actively excited by employing different ultrasonic sources; (1) magnetostrictive collar (MR) to generate the axisymmetric (torsion) GWs and (2) conventional piezoelectric patches to generate the antisymmetric flexural waves on the exterior surface, and the characteristics of acoustic-ultrasonic signals are studied using NCF based multiplexed fiber-optic sensor. Fiber optic sensor is an inline multimode interferometer made by sandwiching a piece of NCF (~5cm) between the single mode fibers. The NCF sensor is remotely bonded at 45° w.r.t pipe axis on one end and has an ultrasonic sensing range of >600kHz. Finally, the measured acousto-ultrasonic signals for different ultrasonic sources are compared to those obtained by the numerical simulation or electrical-based sensor for the healthy and damaged test pipes. The proposed work presents useful insight for damage detection in pipes using an NCF-based quasi-distributed fiber-optic acoustic sensor combined with ultrasonic GWs excitation.
Single crystal (SC) optical fiber has promising potential to be used for optical fiber sensing applications in harsh conditions due to its robustness to high temperature, high radioactivity, and resistance to chemical corrosion as compared to optical sensors using silica fiber. However, SC fiber grown via the laser-heated pedestal growth (LHPG) technique innately does not have a core-cladding structure found in standard optical fiber, resulting in optical losses. In this work we investigate optimization of the growth parameters of a two LHPG process used to grow SC fiber with a graded index via introduction of dopants to the feedstock material. Feedstock material is fabricated with the first LHPG device, then sol-gel dip-coated to deposit outer films of dopant material. The dip-coated feedstock is used to grow SC fiber in which segregation of the dopant constituents occurs, resulting in a graded index of refraction across the fiber, and an effective core-cladding structure. Hardware and software improvements to both LHPG systems are presented and the growth parameters for short pieces of ~320-330μm diameter YAG fiber has been established. Characterization techniques/procedures have also been established for future grown SC fiber. These improvements and preparations are anticipated to result in a significant increase in grown fiber quality with a similar growth rate to that previously established.
Even though the dynamic response of the magnetic fluid is well investigated by magnetic means and known for their high frequency response in MHz to GHz range, the same has not been explored as much by optical means in the context of optical fiber sensor platform. The use of magnetic fluid as sensing materials in various fiber optic senor platform is limited to DC magnetic field sensing. In this work, we present the results of magnetic fluid functionalized multimode interferometric fiber optic sensors for their efficacy in measuring the dynamic current induced magnetic field and their limitations to AC frequency response imposed by optical spectrometer as interrogator unit, the response time of the sensing material and the sensor itself. The interferometric structure optimized for unique narrow linewidth spectral response, also known as “fourth self-imaging” in fiber optic platform has demonstrated response time to ~15ms enabling sensing of AC magnetic field and measured up to 10Hz sinusoidal H-field within the peak-to-peak applied H-field of 30Gauss. By further tailoring of magnetic nanoparticle’s concentration in ferrofluid, it is anticipated that the sensors frequency response can be pushed to higher frequencies. The study extends the versatility of these magnetic field sensitive materials for their applications to AC-current and magnetic field sensing.
Electrical system monitoring applications are of increasing importance given recent trends towards electrification driving adoption of renewables and electric vehicles, for example. Thermal and acoustic signatures play an important role in health monitoring while electrical and magnetic field signatures can provide information about operational state. Optical fiber sensors are of particular interest for electrical system applications because of the compatibility with deployment in electrified systems without concerns for electromagnetic interference (EMI) or additional potential risks due to the presence of electrical sensor wires or power at the sensing location, particularly for medium voltage electrical systems. In this presentation, an overview of recent work in optical fiber-based sensing for electrical asset monitoring applications will be discussed in detail. Plasmonic sensors integrated with engineered nanomaterials will be discussed for thermal and other health monitoring applications while interferometric sensors will be discussed for acoustics and also magnetic fields and electrical current sensing. New directions in fiber-based sensing applications will also be discussed moving into the future.
KEYWORDS: Signal to noise ratio, Acoustics, Optical fibers, Metals, Single mode fibers, Optical sensing, Ferroelectric materials, Structural health monitoring, Fiber optics sensors, Data acquisition
Pipeline infrastructure monitoring based on distributed fiber-optic acoustic sensing is gaining significant attention aimed at real-time rapid detection of leakages, third-party intrusion, geo-hazards, corrosion, and other structural damages. Typical fibers installations are external to a pipeline, however retrofitting of existing pipelines through internal installation is desirable despite deployment challenges. Highly sensitive distributed acoustic sensing integrated within new pipelines or retrofit in existing pipelines can enable early detection of damage and degradation. In this work, we demonstrate pipeline integrity monitoring using distributed acoustic sensing and the Rayleigh backscattering-enhanced optical fibers deployed internal to the pipeline for high sensitivity detection of acoustic events. More specifically, traditional and backscattering-enhanced optical fibers are interrogated using bench-top phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (Φ-OTDR). The distributed acoustic sensing characteristics of two types of backscattered-enhanced fibers, Type A and Type B, are experimentally investigated. Our measurement analysis shows that the SNR of the acoustic event detection enhances ~2-fold and ~3-fold using the Type A and Type B fiber, respectively than that of the traditional SMF for pipeline monitoring. The presented investigation is a first validation for in-pipe deployed distributed acoustic sensing with high SNR and provides useful insight for diverse pipeline monitoring applications in the oil and gas distribution industry.
Absence of a final repository for nuclear waste has increased attention on dry cask storage systems (DCSSs) which were originally intended for temporary storage, increasing the need for new structural health monitoring paradigms considering safety and environmental impacts. Current integrity inspection requirements consist of periodic manned inspections due in part to the difficulties with real-time monitoring of internal canister conditions without penetrating the canister surface. Here we overview a new approach to nuclear canister integrity structural health monitoring which combines both quasi-distributed fiber optic acoustic (and other) sensing modalities deployed external to the canister as well as physics-based modeling to enable real-time inference of internal canister conditions, including the identification, localization, and classification of various active or incipient failure conditions. More specifically, we overview the vision for the proposed monitoring approach and describe results to date in theoretical physics-based modeling and artificial intelligence-based analytics to accelerate the development of classification frameworks for rapid interpretation of quasi-distributed acoustic and other complementary fiber optic sensing responses. In addition, we describe early results obtained for a quasi-distributed fiber optic sensor network based upon multimode interferometer sensors using an experimental test bed established for dry-cask storage canister sensing experiments. Future work will be overviewed and discussed in the context of expanded scope of the proposed real-time monitoring system and planned field validations.
Optical fiber based electro-magnetic field sensors is a diverse and expanding field in fiber sensor technology with applications spanning from geomagnetism, biomagnetism, nuclear magnetism to safety and operational monitoring of power grid systems. Particularly, because of the dielectric silica material of the fiber that provides high electric insulation and immunity to the electromagnetic interference (EMI), a major reason contributing to the limitations in conventional sensors, the efforts have been focused on developing the fiber-optic sensors with increased sensitivity, bandwidth, and detection range specific to an application but all benefit from the advantages of the platform. Various fiber structures, interrogation schemes and sensing materials have been investigated. One major interest is on the fiber-optic sensor based on multi-mode interference (MMI) where a multimode mode fiber is fusion spliced between two single mode fibers also known as SMS (single-mode/multimode/single mode) fiber sensor. Ease of fabrication, compactness, higher sensitivity, and low cost are some of the driving factors in addition to the potential for direct integration of the platform with functional sensor materials to tailor for specific applications. For the purpose of magnetic field sensing, the magnetic fluid is the most widely used functional material as the sensing/cladding layer on the fiber-structure. Here we present efforts to enhance and optimize the sensitivity of such SMS structure with magnetic fluid as the sensing material exploiting the unique “self-imaging” property of the SMS sensor where the sensor produces a filterlike spectral response and is highly sensitive to the change in magneto-optical property of surrounding medium. The performance metrics of the sensor are analyzed against DC magnetic field range keeping an eye in detecting typical current induced magnetic field in power grid systems.
In recent years, optical fiber sensing has emerged as an attractive technology for spatially and temporally distributed monitoring of various types of infrastructure, including pipelines. This technology can provide information such as distributed temperature, corrosion, acoustic, strain, and even vibrations which can be used in real-time monitoring of operational processes or to identify early signatures of impending faults or failures. In this paper, we successfully demonstrate the installation of fiber optic cable inside a pipeline using a long-distance robotic Fiber Optic Deployment Tool (FODT). The FODT is a self-contained semiautonomous robotic device that can propel in a range of pipe diameters to install a fiber optic cable inside the pipeline. It can be controlled remotely, and the current version offers a maximum installation speed of 15 feet/minute. In this demonstration, a distributed fiber cable was installed in a 50’ long, 8.25″ inner diameter steel pipe. The proposed FODT, when combined with distributed sensing, will be an attractive and promising technology for monitoring of oil and gas, water pipelines, and the structural health of pipeline rehabilitation systems.
Laser heated pedestal growth (LHPG) method is a unique technique to grow single crystal fibers and fibrous materials of high temperature ceramics for various photonic and electronic applications. The stability of the solidification process and the floating molten zone created at the interface between the feed and seed materials is critical for ensuring high quality of the fiber including uniformity of diameter. To maintain the molten zone volume constant throughout the dynamic growth process, the typical LHPG system control scheme will modify the relative speed control of fiber-pull rate versus the source material feed rate as constrained by mass conservation. However, due to the dynamic nature of the growth process and the floating state of the molten material, it is prone to instability due to non-uniform heating, heat loss, melt convection, seed-fiber and pedestal material alignments, and other factors which impact growth processes. Sustainable growth process demands a combination of optimized optical components and real-time process controls. Here we present a detailed optical analysis of several candidate LHPG optical designs and compare details of the illumination at the molten zone region during the growth process. In addition, we explore the potential for enhancing the typical process control by utilizing (1) active laser power control and (2) machine vision methods for real-time characterization of the molten zone profile to be integrated into active control schemes. Impacts on the quality of the fiber grown in terms of uniformity in diameters upon active laser power feedback loop to mitigate the molten zone shape variation is also discussed.
Fiber optic-based sensing for non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring of various infrastructure and energy assets is an increasingly important sensing scheme. Because of their immunity to electromagnetic interferences, versatility in sensing mechanisms and designs as well as capability for distributed sensing, the fiber optic sensing is of great interest for embedding within infrastructures using advanced manufacturing methods. However, the protection of fiber optic sensors during advanced manufacturing-based embedding is an important aspect for infrastructure monitoring in practice. While successful installation of fiber optic sensors has been accomplished through application of epoxy or adhesives on infrastructure surfaces, there has been only limited investigation of fiber protection packaging schemes which are compatible with in-situ repair techniques such as the metallic cold-spray. With increasing interest and importance of cold spray-based repair processes, the integration of fiber optic sensors simultaneously during the repair is equally important. In this work, we focus our efforts on investigating various types of packaging schemes for their compatibility and integrability on the surfaces of metallic structures such as oil and gas pipelines during an insitu repair coating. First, we consider sandblasting using silica sand particles of various size for optical fibers on the surface of a metallic coupon as a useful proxy test of sensor packaging stability. Structural damage of packaging is characterized by means of optical microscopy and the optical integrity of embedded fiber optic cables is examined using optical backscatter reflectometry (OBR). In addition, initial investigation of metallic cold-spray embedded fiber optic cables under various packaging on metallic substrates is also considered with early conclusions and future directions.
KEYWORDS: Laser crystals, Fiber lasers, Crystals, Laser development, Biological and chemical sensing, Imaging spectroscopy, High power lasers, Environmental sensing, Control systems
Single crystal fiber has a wide range of applications spanning from high temperature sensing, radiation sensing in harsh environment, high power laser and power delivery, medical and chemical application, and imaging applications. Nevertheless, the potential of single crystal fiber has not been fully explored in part because of the limited facilities available for custom growth of high quality, low loss, and custom fiber chemistries and geometries. The presentation provides an overview of recent work and current state of the art on growth of single crystal oxide fibers using various techniques. A discussion of recent progress in applications of single crystal fibers was also presented spanning harsh environment sensing, radiation sensing, and fiber lasers. In this paper, we also overview establishment of a Laser Heated Pedestal Growth system at University of Pittsburgh including the online monitoring of the fiber growth process and discuss important process parameters for future process optimization. We demonstrate the growth of single crystal fiber from a polycrystalline source rod which may be a more affordable and flexible method in the future.
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