Large-range phase-difference sensing technology for low-frequency strain interrogation

Phase-difference sensing technology (PDST) has been applied to strain measurement, but its completeness is destroyed by the phase-difference measurement range. A scheme that can realize the completeness of the PDST for low-frequency strain interrogation is proposed. It is built on dual-interferometers and the elliptic-fitting algorithm. To break the measurement range limitation (0, π), a phase compensation setting is applied. The experimental results demonstrate that the method can obtain low-frequency strain signals, and the low-frequency signal whose phase amplitude is greater than π is recovered. The scheme is an efficient and complete method for measuring the strain of low-frequency optical fiber length, which could be applied to low-frequency seismic wave monitoring and rock deformation detection.