Study on the distributed optical fiber sensing technology for pipeline leakage protection

A new distributed optical fiber sensing technology to detect pipeline leakage in real time is introduced in this paper, which is based on Mach-Zehnder optical fiber interferometer. The principle of this technology is analyzed, and the phase change of light wave caused by the leakage acoustic wave is discussed as well. The results of the theory analysis and the experiments show that the measuring sensitivity of detecting leakage is greatly improved. Using this technology, the gas leakage of 0.4m³/min can be detected and the measured distance is about 50km under the condition that the pressure of the gas pipe is less than 0.2Mpa.