BOTDA sensor simulation for the Measurement of Stress and Temperatures

This paper presents the simulation of a distributed Brillouin optical sensor for the measurement of stresses and tem- peratures, considering that currently there is no simulation tool that allows evaluating the performance of these types of sensors when some techniques aimed at increasing its detection range are applied. This developed simulation, allows a comparison from the point of view of the power levels experienced by the probe signal (range), when a technique or a set of techniques aimed at increasing their power level is applied to it, prior to its implementation. The Brillouin Optical Analysis in the Time domain (BOTDA) allows to analyze the effects of Pre- Amplification, First Order Raman Amplification and Optical Coding of the pumping signal in a common simulation scenario. The simulation shows that the best results, in terms of the probe signal power (range), are obtained by combining the techniques of Pre-Amplification, Raman Amplification and Coding of the Pumping Signal.