Researches and applications of high-performance quasi-distributed and distributed optical fiber vibration sensors for oil and gas industry

Oil and gas industry is a significant application area for optical fiber sensors, among which the quasi-distributed and distributed optical fiber vibration sensors play promising roles in the sectors of exploration, exploitation, production, and transportation within the oil and gas industry. These scenarios put forward stringent requirements for the performance metrics of optical fiber vibration sensors, including noise floor, dynamic range, and real-time performance to ensure practical usage, particularly in harsh environments. Here we briefly introduce the related works in our research group about the quasi-distributed and distributed optical fiber vibration sensors, specially focusing on the optimizations of the sensors’ measurement resolution, enhancements of dynamic range, improvements of stability and developments of post-processing algorithms. The developed quasi-distributed and distributed optical fiber vibration sensors have been successfully applied in several oil field applications, such as microseismic monitoring and hydraulic fracturing. Finally, we summarize our research efforts and anticipate future development directions for optical fiber vibration sensors in the oil and gas industry.