DFOS Applications to Geo-Engineering Monitoring

Optical fiber sensing technology has developed rapidly since the 1980s with the development of the optical fiber and fiber optical communication technology. It is a new type of sensing technology that uses light as a carrier and optical fiber as a medium to sense and transmit external signals (measurands). Distributed fiber optical sensors (DFOS) can continuously measure the external physical parameters distributed along the geometric path of the optical fiber. Meanwhile, the spatial distribution and change information of the measured physical parameters over time can be obtained. This technology has unmatched advantages over traditional point-wise and electrical measurement monitoring technologies. This paper summarizes the state-of-the-art research of the application of the distributed optical fiber sensing technology in geo-engineering in the past 10 years, mainly including the advantages of DFOS, the challenges in geo-engineering monitoring, related fundamental theoretical issues, sensing performance of the optical sensing cables, distributed optical fiber monitoring system for geo-engineering, and applications of optical fiber sensing technology in geo-engineering.