In industries where seconds matter, the need for real-time sensing is only becoming more vital. Traditional fiber optics have provided valuable insights with record speed for decades, but the demands of modern applications necessitate a leap forward in sensitivity, accuracy, and data analysis capabilities. High Fidelity Distributed Sensing (HDS) represents this evolution—a next-generation technology engineered to deliver unparalleled sensing performance.
The Evolution of Fiber Optic Sensing Technologies
The fiber optic sensing journey began more than 30 years ago with first-generation fiber optic technologies, primarily Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS). These systems utilize standard telecommunications fiber to detect acoustic anomalies and gather temperature information along the length of the fiber.
While groundbreaking at their inception, these methods face limitations in sensitivity and specificity due to the inherent characteristics of telecom-grade fiber. it’s important to note that telecommunications fiber has been optimized over decades for data transmission rather than for sensing. As we’ve outlined below, the basic goals of these two applications are often contradictory, and many industries looking to gain high-precision insights about their assets have recognized the need for additional capabilities.
Motivation to Move Beyond First-Generation Technologies
- Sensitivity Constraints: Standard telecom fibers are designed to minimize signal loss by limiting reflectivity of incident light to minute fractions that are backscattered by impurities in the fiber core. While this low reflectivity improves data transmission, it has the opposite effect and reduces the fiber’s performance for sensing applications.
- Data Specificity: As indicated by their names, DAS and DTS systems have typically focused on single-parameter measurements, providing either acoustic or thermal data without the integrated functionality to correlate multiple data types to enable more comprehensive analysis.
- Data Quality: The sensitivity constraints noted above result in low signal-to-noise ratios (SNR)
As you can see, factors that make a fiber ideal for transmission applications can actively impede its sensing performance. These inherent limitations highlighted the clear need to move beyond first-generation technologies towards a solution designed specifically for sensing that could be applied to industries requiring precise 24/7 monitoring.
The Emergence of High-Fidelity Distributed Sensing (HDS)
Recognizing the need for a more capable solution, Hifi developed specialized High Fidelity Distributed Sensing (HDS) equipment a proprietary technology that transcends the capabilities of first-generation systems. HDS leverages specially engineered fiber optic cables embedded with Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBGs) supported by customized machine learning algorithms to enable high-resolution sensing of multiple parameters simultaneously.
Key Innovations in HDS
- Proprietary Cable Architecture: Unlike standard telecom fibers, HDS utilizes customized cables designed to reflect a greater portion of incident light for maximum fidelity (an optical term analogous to sensitivity). This enhanced reflectivity significantly improves SNR, allowing for the detection and differentiation of minute changes in the surrounding environment.
- Wavelength and Time Division Multiplexing: By using FBGs as wavelength-selective reflectors coupled with Wavelength and Time Division Multiplexing (WDM & TDM), HDS is able to achieve this exceptional SNR over very long distances, making the technology ideally suited for high-resolution monitoring of long linear assets.
- Advanced Data Correlation: By combining the engineered sensing fiber’s precise measurement capabilities for strain, temperature, and acoustic signals with a suite of independent algorithms tailored to each parameter, HDS fully leverages the horsepower of Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning (AI & ML) to correlate these signals to identify and validate specific events with very high confidence.
Proprietary Fiber Optic Cables with Fiber Bragg Gratings
The core of the HDS technology lies in its proprietary fiber optic cables. These are not off-the-shelf telecom fibers but rather custom engineered to meet the stringent requirements of high-fidelity sensing.
Advantages Over Telecom Fiber for Sensing Applications
- Increased Sensing Performance: The HDS fiber achieves SNRs that are orders-of-magnitude greater than those generally attainable with telecom fibers, allowing for reliable capture of minute changes (like pinhole leaks) that would be undetectable with standard fibers.
- Improved Data Quality: Higher SNR also translates directly to higher data quality, enabling more effective use of AI & ML to capture and accurately characterize events of interest while dramatically reducing the occurrence of false positives.
- Performance Range: By coupling FBGs with WDM and TDM, the HDS platform maintains exceptional signal stability over very long distances. We call this ‘strong interferometry’ and it allows HDS to achieve the same remarkable fidelity along every single centimetre of its full path, meaning it will detect a pinhole leak or ground disturbance as readily at kilometer post marker 1 as it will at km post marker 100.
Role of Fiber Bragg Gratings
FBGs act as highly selective mirrors within the fiber, allowing for precise control of the percentage and wavelength of reflected light. This property enables highly accurate measurement of acoustics, as well as changes in strain and temperature anywhere along the fiber, as alterations in each of these parameters shifts the reflected wavelengths.
In short, FBGs enable localized measurement of minute energy signatures for the following :
- Strain & Vibration: Detecting movement at the micrometer level indicative of structural changes or deformations in pipelines and
,structures, or the surrounding earth.
- Temperature Change: Measuring thermal variations to 0.001⁰C that could indicate fluid leakage (for instance the Joule Thomson cooling effect associated with the escape of supercritical CO2), process anomalies or environmental changes.
- Acoustic Detection: Capturing a wide range of sonic and ultrasonic acoustics associated with leaks, operating equipment (such as inspection tools operating on, in or near the pipeline), or intrusion activity within a specified distance from the asset.
Advanced Data Analysis with AI & ML
Collecting high-quality data is only part of the equation. HDS also employs advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to transform raw data into usable information. This pairing of engineered hardware and cutting-edge software produces the most powerful sensing solution for distributed data collection and meaningful integrity insights.
Orthogonal Data Processing
By leveraging independent (also known as orthogonal) algorithms tailored for selective pattern recognition to look at optical data sets from multiple unique perspectives, HDS achieves the following:
- Correlates Multiple Signatures: HDS combines acoustic, thermal, and strain data to produce a more comprehensive picture of event signatures, allowing for more accurate identification and characterization.
- Reduces False Positives: Enhanced specificity combined with corroboration of multiple event signatures dramatically improves confidence in event identification, ensuring that alerts correspond to real events of interest, not noise or routine operations.
- Enables Predictive Analytics: Machine learning models have the potential to identify patterns in high quality data that often precede integrity failures, opening the door for proactive maintenance.
Comprehensive Asset Monitoring
The integration of AI and ML allows for a holistic understanding of asset conditions, facilitating:
- Real-Time Monitoring: Immediate detection and communication of anomalous events, allowing for reduced response times.
- Trend Analysis: Evaluation of vast amounts of relevant asset data over extended periods to identify gradual degradation, hidden threats or emerging issues.
- Operational Optimization: Data-driven decisions to inform operating practices, maintenance strategies and improve efficiency and safety.
Third-Party Validation
The efficacy of HDS is not just theoretical; it has been extensively validated via third-party testing to support its capabilities for the detect ion of pinhole leaks in liquid and gas pipelines with minimal false positives.
Significance of Independent Performance Validation
- Credibility: Testing by an independent third party – often done as part of a multi-supplier head-to-head technology qualification process – confirms the reliability and accuracy of the HDS system.
- Regulatory Considerations: Independent third party testing is the cornerstone of Regulatory oversight, ensuring that industry and the broader public are shielded from risks tied to subjective performance claims. This is particularly true for integrity monitoring applications where the consequences of failure are often extreme.
- Client Confidence: Provides assurance to stakeholders regarding the performance of the technology while quantifying the noted benefits relative to first-gen systems.
Impact on Industry Practices
The validated performance of HDS sets a new benchmark for pipeline monitoring and environmental safety, encouraging the adoption of more advanced sensing technologies across industries.
Benefits of HDS
HDS technology has wide-ranging applications across various sectors, delivering significant benefits in operational efficiency, safety, and cost savings. We go more in-depth on these sectors in a separate post, but here’s a summary of the benefits of HDS technology that make it so valuable for a multitude of industry players:
- 100% Coverage: Nearly all existing sensor technology is limited in resolution, space or time. Mass balance systems (like CPM) are limited by the accuracy of the instruments which provide their data, while periodic surveys (like smart balls, ILI tools and drones) may not be in the right place at the right time. HDS, in contrast, truly holds the potential to achieve 100% coverage across space and time with unmatched resolution.
- Versatility: Since HDS is agnostic to the flowing medium, it delivers the same exceptional monitoring performance regardless of the transported fluid – from oil, gas, and water to hydrogen, supercritical CO2 and even slurries.
- Responsiveness: The real-time detection and communication capabilities of HDS outlined in this blog bring invaluable, data-rich insights to the control room at the speed of light, allowing operators to make informed decisions about the best course of action quickly and decisively.
- Accuracy: A monitoring system that increases your uncertainty by frequently generating false alarms is of little operational value. As we’ve detailed above, HDS was designed specifically to address this Achilles Heel of first-gen systems and virtually eliminate false positives to bring maximum value-in-use, not to mention peace of mind.
Conclusion & Summary
High Fidelity Distributed Sensing (HDS) represents a significant advancement in fiber optic sensing technology. By overcoming the limitations of first-generation systems through proprietary fiber design and sophisticated AI-driven data analysis, HDS provides a comprehensive solution for modern monitoring challenges.
Industries that adopt HDS stand to benefit from unprecedented sensitivity, accuracy, and actionable insights, leading to safer and smarter management of their critical linear assets. As the demands on infrastructure and environmental stewardship grow, technologies like HDS will be essential in meeting these challenges head-on.
Partner with Hifi to Safeguard Your Assets Today
Hifi is leading the evolution of fiber optic sensing, dedicated to delivering high-fidelity solutions that empower industries to achieve greater levels of safety, efficiency, and environmental responsibility. With a commitment to excellence, proven performance across thousands of pipeline kilometers and a track record of objective third-party validation, Hifi continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in distributed sensing technology.
Contact us today to learn more about our technology through a complimentary demo.