Evaluation of fiber-optic cables for use in distributed acoustic sensing: Commercially available cables and novel cable designs

Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is an emerging technology that has seen significant improvements recently related to the development of the optical interrogation unit. The fiber-optic cable is also a key seismic sensing component in a DAS system. We have been working to understand the role of the fiber-optic cable in the performance of a DAS system and to develop novel fiber optic cable designs. We show field trial results for the performance of commercially available fiber optic cables that have been tested in a well and in a trench deployment. Results indicate that the majority of the cables tested have very similar performance. We also describe efforts to develop novel cable designs along with preliminary results from the most recent field trial of two prototype DAS cable designs: inertial (an inertial-member cable) and compressional (a helically-wound cable). Data were successfully acquired and the analysis is ongoing.