Enhance Pipeline Monitoring with Fiber-Optic Sensing (Download)

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Pipeline contents are typically valuable, volatile, and harmful to the environment if allowed to escape. With them being susceptible to aging, accidental damage, or tampering, the chances of an escape are very real—and this potential increases in remote, uninhabited areas through which they pass. Integrity monitoring is, therefore, essential.

Although primarily known for communications, fiber optics were first envisioned for vibration monitoring. The photonic sensor, an extrinsic fiber sensor for non-contact vibration measurements, was patented in 1967.