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A Feasibility Study on the Application of

Fiber-Optic Distributed Sensors for Strain
Measurement in the Taiwan Strait Tunnel
Project
a

BIN SHI , HONGZHONG XU , BIN CHEN , DAN ZHANG , YONG

a

DING , HELIANG CUI & JUNQI GAO

ACEI, Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing,

China
Published online: 21 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: BIN SHI , HONGZHONG XU , BIN CHEN , DAN ZHANG , YONG DING , HELIANG CUI &
JUNQI GAO (2003) A Feasibility Study on the Application of Fiber-Optic Distributed Sensors for Strain
Measurement in the Taiwan Strait Tunnel Project, Marine Georesources & Geotechnology, 21:3-4,
333-343, DOI: 10.1080/713773406
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713773406

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Marine Georesources and Geotechnology, 21: 333343, 2003

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Inc.
ISSN: 1064-119X print=1521-0618 online
DOI: 10.1080=10641190390266525

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A Feasibility Study on the Application of Fiber-Optic

Distributed Sensors for Strain Measurement in
the Taiwan Strait Tunnel Project
BIN SHI
HONGZHONG XU
BIN CHEN
DAN ZHANG
YONG DING
HELIANG CUI
JUNQI GAO
ACEI, Department of Earth Sciences
Nanjing University
Nanjing, China
Taiwan Strait Tunnel (TST) will be an extra-long tunnel or tunnel-bridge complex,
running over 150 km of seaoor geologic body with complicated topographic and
geologic units. It is therefore necessary to measure and monitor the strain distribution along the TST. In this article, the Brillouin optical time-domain reectometer (BOTDR), a newly developed strain measurement and monitoring
technology, is introduced, and the feasibility of its application in the strain monitoring for TST is analyzed through the monitoring achievement with BOTDR
of a tunnel located in Nanjing City, China. The results indicate that the BOTDR
has many unique merits such as distributed measurement, long-distance, real-time,
and resistibility for strain monitoring application in a tunnel such as TST. Finally,
a preliminary scheme for BOTDR application in TST monitoring is proposed.
Keywords BOTDR, ber optic distributed sensor, monitoring, strain measurement, TST

Taiwan Strait Tunnel (TST) project was formally proposed in the Symposium on
Taiwan Strait Tunnel Project, held in Xiamen, China, November 2527, 1998. As
Prof. Fang wrote in his report: TST is a highly interdisciplinary and comprehensive
project under extreme adverse environmental conditions (Fang 2000). So it is
necessary to gather researchers from various elds to verify the feasibility of the TST
project. From a technical aspect, the strain measurement and security monitoring
during and after building TST is a very important integral part of the entire technical

Received 1 September 2003; accepted 15 October 2003.

The authors gratefully acknowledge project support from the National Science Fund for
Distinguished Young Scholars of China (40225006).
Address correspondence to Bin Shi, ACEI, Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. E-mail: shibin@nju.edu.cn

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B. Shi et al.

system. TST, the longest tunnel in the world, will extend 150 Km, and runs over a
variety of complicated topographic and geologic units under the seaoor, including
seismic and tectonic zones. Thus, a very high degree of engineering measurement
technology is needed. Obviously, some of the traditional and conventional measurement and monitoring techniques such as the point-mode resistant chip method
will have not meet the needs of such a long tunnel system.
Recently, the Brillouin Optical Time Domain Reectometer (BOTDR) has been
recognized as a powerful distributed ber-optic sensor with its real-time monitoring,
long measurable distance, high measurement accuracy and high durability. The
BOTDR has begun to be applied in deformation monitoring and health diagnosis of
various infrastructure engineering such as in tunnels, dikes, bridges, and subways
(Bao et al. 2001; Haruyoshi et al. 1997; Liu and Zheng 1999; Ohno et al. 2001; Qiang
1999; Wu et al. 2000; Yang et al. 2000).
Supported by the 985 Project of Nanjing University and a key project of the
Education Ministry of China, the BOTDR ber-optic monitoring laboratory for
infrastructure system monitoring, the rst one in China was set up in 2000 at
Nanjing University. Led by the rst author, the research group has made a series of
trials regarding the applications of BOTDR in the tunnel strain measurement and
monitoring, and has obtained some signicant results. In 2001 and 2002, BOTDR
has successfully been applied in the strain measurement and monitoring of two
tunnels, Nanjing Gulou tunnel and Xuanwuhu lake tunnel. The former was built six
years ago; the latter is an ongoing tunnel construction. The measurement and
monitoring results demonstrate that the distributed BOTDR monitoring scheme
adopted in tunnel projects is feasible and effective to monitor the deformation distribution. The function and measurement accuracy of the BOTDR can meet the
needs of the tunnel measurement and monitoring.
In this article, the basic principle of BOTDR and some research results on the
tunnel measurement and monitoring are presented. A preliminary scheme for the
strain measurement and monitoring for TST with BOTDR is drafted.

Basic Principle of BOTDR

The detection principle of BOTDR is briey outlined as follows: a continuous light,
emitted from the DFB-LD laser light source, can be separated into a probe light
output to the optical ber to be measured and a reference light for heterodyne
detection. The probe light can be modulated into a pulse light by an intensity
modulator. Brillouin backscattered light takes place as the pulse light launched into
the optical ber interacts with the acoustic phonons, and a frequency shift of
Brillouin backscattered light occurs compared with the frequency of the launched
pulse light. The frequency shift amount is in proportion to both the longitudinal
strain of the optical ber and its temperature (Haruyoshi 1997). Figures 1 and 2
show the strain dependence and temperature dependence of the Brillouin frequency
shift.
The core technique of BOTDR is Brillouin spectroscopy and Optical Time
Domain Reectometry (ODTR) that enables BOTDR to measure strain generated in
optical bers as distributed in the longitudinal direction. When the strain occurs in
the longitudinal direction of optical ber, the backscattered light of Brillouin
undergoes a frequency shift that is in proportional to the strain. Brillouin frequency
shift is function of strain e and can be expressed by Equation (1):

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Figure 1. Strain dependence of Brillouin frequency shift change.

vB e vB 0

dvB e

e;
de

where vB e is Brillouin frequency shift with strain; vB 0 is Brillouin frequency shift

without strain; dvB e=de is the proportional coefcient of strain that is about
0.5 GHz (=% strain) at the wavelength l 1.55 mm; and e is the strain.
Pulse light is launched into one end of an optical ber, and the Brillouin
backscattered light occurs and is detected at the same end. The distance Z from the
launched end of the optical ber is given by Equation (2):
Z

c
T
;
2n

where c is velocity of light in a vacuum; n is the index of refraction of an optical

ber; and T is the time interval between launching pulse light and receiving the
scattered light.

Figure 2. Temperature dependence of Brillouin frequency shift change.

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B. Shi et al.

Figure 3 show the tridimensional diagram of BOTDR measurement principle. It

can be seen from Figure 3 that the BOTDR is able to both measure the strain and
locate the distance where the strain occurs along the optical ber.

BOTDR Advantages

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Compared with the conventional strain monitoring techniques, the advantages of

BOTDR can be summed up as the follows:
1. Distributed. BOTDR can continuously and simultaneously measure the strain
of the structure at any points distributed along the optical ber from only one
end of an optical ber. With a network of optical bers, the BOTDR can
perform full scale monitoring for the structure, which is very difcult or
impossible for the conventional point-mode monitoring techniques to do.
2. Long distance. Large infrastructures such as tunnels, dikes, oil pipes, subways,
and large bridges often span the tens or hundreds of kilometers, which is too
long for the conventional point-mode monitoring techniques to monitor and
measure the deformation distributed in various parts of the structure.
BOTDR, however, can do that due to its long monitoring distance of over
80 kilometers. On the other hand, the optical ber in BOTDR serves as both
the sensor and the signal transmission medium, so BOTDR is able to monitor
the structure from the remote monitoring center and doesnt need somebody
on the site to do it.
3. Real-time. BOTDR is capable of monitoring the strain abnormities along the
optical ber in real time and of showing where, how much, and when the
strain occurred. Thus, BOTDR can be used to monitor the strain distribution
of infrastructure system dynamically.

Figure 3. Tridimensional diagram of BOTDR measurement principle.

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4. Resistibility. Optical ber is made of a nonmetal, quartz glass, so it resists

rusting and environmental erosion and can be used in most severe conditions
such as humid or arid, high or low temperature. In addition, it can protect
itself from electric and electromagnetic interference and avoid signal error in
the transmitting process.
5. Compatibility. Optical ber is thin, exible, and lightweight, so it is easy to
install in or on the structure without degrading the structures strength.
6. Accuracy. BOTDR can detect as little as 30 mm strain along the optical
ber, and its distance resolution can reach less than 1 m, which enables it
to meet the needs of strain measurement and health diagnosis of tunnel
engineering.

A Case of BOTDR Application

Outline
In order to illustrate the feasibility of BOTDR for strain measurement of the future
TST, an application case is presented here.
The case is the Gulou tunnel, located in Nanjing City. The approximately
1150 m long structure runs from south to north, including a 400 m approach and a
750 m arch. It has twin, side-by-side concrete arches each with 11.6 m span and is
separated by the inner concrete wall with 1 m thick between two the arches. The
maximal cover thickness of the tunnel is 12.9 m, and the minimum 0.26 m. The
tunnel was completed in 1996 and has been in use for six years.
The monitoring work with BOTDR for the tunnel aimed at understanding
whole and partial deformation of the tunnel and acquiring its health diagnosis
conclusion. The 750 m length of the western arch was taken as the monitoring zone.
Optical ber installation was completed in July, 2002, and the monitoring began on
July 2 and lasted six months.

Project Scheme
Based on many experiments, the jacketed SM optical ber from Corning Co, Ltd.
was selected as the sensor with the following specications: 8.3=125=900=mm
(core=cladding=protective coating); weight 0.9 kg=km; maximal tension 6.6 N in
short term and 3.0 N in long term; minimum bending radius 3.0 cm in short term
and 5.0 cm in long term; compressive strength 200 N=m; conservation temperature
40 80 C; working temperature: 20 80 C; working wavelength 1.3
1.5 mm; refractive index error 0.36%; effective group refractive index 1.4681 (1550
window).
In light of the deformation characteristics of the tunnel and 1 m distance resolution of BOTDR, the optical bers were installed on the surface of the concrete arch
with two congurations (see Figure 4).
1. Overall Adhesion Method (OAM). That means the optical ber is entirely
afxed to the surface of the concrete arch as shown in Figure 4. This method
is designed to examine the entire deformation of the tunnel such as the uneven
subsidence of the tunnel.

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Figure 4. The congurations of OAM and FAM.

2. Fixed-point Adhesion Method (FAM). That means the optical ber is

bonded on the xed points on the surface of the concrete arch at a certain
intervals as shown in Figure 1. This installation method is used so as to detect
the partial deformation caused by the crack zones with widths less than the
distance resolution of BOTDR.
Five lines of optical bers were installed, four of them are afxed to the concrete
wall in the west side of the western arch using the OAM and the FAM mixed with
O-FAM, respectively, one of them was afxed to the arch along which the optical
ber was cinctured three times using the FAM. All of optical bers were centralized
to connect to an optical cable after they were set, and then link to the management
room located in the middle of the tunnel for BOTDR monitoring, (see Figures 5
and 6).
According to the scheme above, a series of installation techniques was used to
afx the optical ber on the tunnel, including uting, smoothing, grinding,
cleaning, bottoming, sticking, checking, and so on. A special epoxy resin was used

Figure 5. Plane layout of the optical ber installation of the tunnel.

Optical ber on
Optical ber on western sidewall with OAM;
western sidewall with FAM;
Optical ber on the top;
End of optical ber;
Optical ber cable;
Side wall of the tunnel.

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Fiber Optic Sensors for Strain Measurement

339

Figure 6. Tridimensional layout of optical ber installation on the arch.

as adhesive, meanwhile mini OTDR was used to inspect the optical loss attenuation and breakpoint caused during installing. FSM-16R splicer was used to fuse
optical ber.
Analysis of the Deformation
The deformation of the tunnel is mainly local, caused by the cracks and joints distributed on the tunnel sidewall and arch. Based on the strain distribution measured
by FAM, the abnormal segments or points distributed on the measured strain
spectrum were specially analyzed and their measured strain values can be converted
into the deformation value using the following formula:
d D
e;

where D is the length of the strained ber; e is the measured strain; and d is the
deformation value, in which the sign convention is that the positive sign indicates
the tensile due to the crack opening and negative sign denotes the compressive due to
the crack closure.
The converted deformations of some selected abnormal measured points during
the period from July 4 to November 17 are shown in Table 1. It can be seen that
there is such a tendency that the closer to the tunnel entrance the measured point is,
the larger the deformation becomes. The maximum deformation value is 0.142 mm
at the measured point SP 27 that is the closest to the southern entrance, and the
minimum is 0.094 mm at SP 17 that is near the center of the tunnel. However the

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B. Shi et al.
Table 1
The deformation of some cracks and joints distributed on the tunnel

Position no.

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SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP

13
15
17
21
23
25
27

Position
(from south entrance)
m

Maximum
eformation
mm

Minimum
deformation
mm

450
405
355(near center)
256
190
138
114

0.139
0.128
0.094
0.103
0.135
0.127
0.142

0.022
0.025
0.021
0.004
0.015
0.008
0.007

compressive deformation of all of selected measured points is very little (0.004

0.025), which indicates that the deformations of the cracks are not fully reversible.
The measured deformation of the tunnel is mainly attributable to the temperature changes after analyzing the temperature changes during monitoring. The
temperature difference at the tunnel entrance is more than that at the central part of
the tunnel, so that the deformation of cracks distributed in the entrance is also larger
than that of other part of the tunnel.
Tunnel Health Diagnosis
Based on the tunnel monitoring data, the preliminary health diagnoses obtained are
as follows: The measured deformation of the tunnel is tiny and is attributable to

Figure 7. Basic constitution of BOTDR-based monitoring system.

Fiber Optic Sensors for Strain Measurement

341

temperature changes. The current deformation incident to the tunnel is within the
tolerance limit and the tunnel is under safe condition.
Summary
On the basis of the above monitoring results and analyses, the following conclusions
can be reached: the distributed BOTDR monitoring scheme adopted in this project is
feasible and effective to monitor tunnel deformation. The functions and monitoring
results of BOTDR monitoring system can meet the needs of the tunnel monitoring
and health diagnosis.

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BOTDR and TST Monitoring

Compared with above tunnel, TST is much longer, extending 150 Km, and much
more complicated, encountering a variety of unpredictable topographic and geologic
conditions under seaoor. However, BOTDR will be fully capable of meeting the

Figure 8. Design owchart of the BOTDR-based monitoring system.

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B. Shi et al.

needs of TST monitoring, owing to the advantages stated above. As for such an
extra-long tunnel or tunnel-bridge complex as TST, subsection monitoring will be
necessary. TST can be divided into several subsections to measure and monitor with
BOTDR. For example, if each subsection spanned 30 km, a total of ve subsections
along TST can be monitored. Nevertheless, the length of a subsection should not be
average, and should be determined based on topographic and geologic conditions,
unit and type of the structure, construction materials and progress, and so on. A
monitoring substation should be set up at the connection of two subsections, and
then the monitored data from each monitoring substation should be transmitted
synchronously to the General Monitoring Station (GMS) via specic optical cable.
Based on the monitored data transmitted from the substations, GMS should give
analysis reports and security assessments for whole tunnel system almost on real
time, and automatically emit a warning at the occurrence of an abnormity. Thus, as
for future work on BOTDR, except for further technical improvement of BOTDR
itself, developing a BOTDR-based monitoring system will be a urgent and vital task
for future BOTDR application in TST and other tunnels. Herein a basic framework
about this system is presented.
Figure 7 shows the basic constitution of this monitoring system. Figure 8 is the
owchart of the system design.

Conclusions
BOTDR with distributed measurement, long-distance, real-time, and resistibility is
quite applicable to strain measurement and monitoring of the TST. The TST is now
merely in the tentative planning stage, and it will take a long time to make further
and detailed feasibility verication. So BOTDR will also have time to be continuously improved and innovated both in its non technology and in its application
before the TST plan would enter substantial operation. It is fully believed that
BOTDR system will become more powerful, much longer, and more accurate to
serve the TST when that dream of several generations becomes reality.

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