Learn more about our technology ~ Fluves

Fiber Optic Sensors

One fiber equals thousands of sensors!

With fiber optics, the fiber itself is the sensor. When a laser pulse is sent through a fiber optic cable, temperature and vibrations can be measured continuously along a standard telecom fiber with a high level of accuracy.

Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) and Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) are fully distributed systems, sensing temperature and vibrations over the entire fiber length. That can measure up to several tens of kilometers.

The back-scattered laser light provides temperature or vibration data. Fluves calculates parameters such as fluid flow or pipeline leakage on each and every meter along the entire fiber length.

Fiber optic sensing offers several advantages over electronic sensors: the ease of combining different sensors on one cable, the lack of electro-magnetic interference and a signal without any loss or drift.

Optical fiber can be installed while an asset is being built, or retrospectively added on existing infrastructure. With optical fiber, 50km of assets can be monitored by one single system.

Fiber Optic Sensor Applications

Pipeline monitoring

Our DALI technology uses fiber optic sensors to automatically pinpoint the exact location of leaks and intrusions in pipelines.

The fiber optic sensing technology we use for DALI is Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS).

After a fiber optic cable is inserted in the pipeline, the DAS system records the leaking sounds along the full fiber length, up till 70 km long.

When a leak is detected, we alarm the pipeline operator within minutes through e-mail, SMS or SCADA systems.

More info on DALI can be found on our DALI website.

Download 'Fluves - Brochure - Dali'

Critical equipment

Critical equipment, such as underground pipelines, reactors, ovens or tanks, can be difficult to reach.

With traditional point sensors, complete coverage of these equipment is not possible. With fiber optic sensors, every meter of these critical assets can be monitored continuously. Faults are detected before they appear, avoiding downtime and extending the lifetime of your site.

The fiber optic cable is installed on or near the critical equipment. Fluves connects the cable to the clients' IT infrastructure, and supplies software that transform the fiber optic measurements into actionable insights.

Operators are warned by mail, SMS or SCADA if faults are predicted or detected.

Download 'Fluves - Brochure - Critical Equipment'

fiber installation at Isaac Newton cable laying vessel

Cap Monitoring

With fiber optic sensors, the erosion of polluted sediment in water bodies can be monitored in a very detailed way. With the same fiber, seepage flow through the cap is detected along every point of the fiber optic cable.

After installing the fiber optic cable in the water body, Fluves uses the measured temperature with the fiber hardware to calculate the thickness of the sediment layer along the cable.

The sediment level and seepage on every m² of many hectares can be continuously monitored in a cost-effective way. Applications are cap thickness and seepage montoring through a cap or evaluation of EMNR/MNR sites and mine-tailing ponds.

Download 'Fluves - Brochure - Cap Monitoring'