Toward a multipoint optical fibre sensor system for use in process water systems based on artificial neural network pattern recognition.

An optical fibre sensor capable of detecting various concentrations of ethanol in water supplies is reported. The sensor is based on a U-bend sensor configuration and is incorporated into a 170-metre length of silica cladding silica core optical fibre. The sensor is interrogated using Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (OTDR) and it is proposed to apply artificial neural network (ANN) pattern recognition techniques to the resulting OTDR signals to accurately classify the sensor test conditions. It is also proposed that additional U-bend configuration sensors will be added to the fibre measurement length, in order to implement a multipoint optical fibre sensor system.