Infrastructure ----------------------------------------------------------------

High value critical infrastructure can take advantage of advances in fiber optic acoustic sensing to protect large structures with a low cost, distributed fiber sensor, such as those enabled by RIO’s narrow linewidth lasers.

Bridges, dams, pipelines and other large civil structures are not only expensive, but impact large numbers of the population.  Dramatic bridge failures have illustrated this risk, as our infrastructure ages, and its usage simultaneously increases.

In emerging markets like China, massive spending on infrastructure is underway, and safety and monitoring has become the more important as the pace of these projects accelerates.  Stress and strain monitoring systems have been available for many years, but only recently, distributed solutions have been created that are cost effective for deployment and effective for detection.  These systems are based on fiber optic distributed sensing enabled by RIO narrow linewidth lasers.

Pipelines are difficult to monitor due to the enormous extent and off-grid location.  Gas pipelines as well as water pipelines are critical infrastructure with high value and potential impact on a great number of people.  For these reasons, they must be monitored and a distributed solution is required.  The most cost-effective approach to distributed monitoring is delivered by narrow linewidth fiber optic systems using RIO Planex lasers.