The Helios system from Fotech consists of two elements: an optical fibre cable, and the Helios Interrogator which is connected to one end of the fibre and sends a pulsed laser into the fibre, and analyses the reflected signals.
The Helios interrogator combines the high sensitivity of optical fibre interferometers with the high spatial resolution of short pulse optical time domain reflectometry in single-mode optical fibre.
Noises or vibrations reaching the fibre create an intrinsic property change and alter the phase of the back-scatter from the laser pulses.
These effects are detected at each metre along its length, located and analysed and can be automatically notified to relevant personnel by the Helios system.
Helios enables detection and distinguishing of multiple simultaneous events more than two metres apart along the entire fibre cable, without any confusion between different locations.
When configured for pipeline monitoring, Helios can detect and locate events over a distance of 125 Km, or over 50 Km+ in standard configuration, and can provide up to 9Khz bandwidth at every metre (dependent of fibre length).Fotech's Helios system delivers a number of capabilities for various applications. Having a distributed acoustic sensor that is inert, tough, difficult to detect and sensitive can be a remarkable tool that has many uses in a number of areas. The basic properties of the fibre are:
• Sensing fiber: up to 125km in length
• Detection accuracy: 1m accuracy with 1m spatial resolution
• Signal bandwidth: 9-10KHz typical
• Pattern recognition system or event classification
• Real-time remote monitoring and control capability
• Real-time communication for alarms and notifi cations to local and remote devices