Method of and system for representing shape of an optical fiber sensor

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of representing shape of an optical fiber sensor () having a central core () and a plurality of outer cores (), each core comprising one or more sensing elements, the method comprising: (a) optically interrogating the cores () of the fiber sensor () from an incident optical wave over a wavelength range centered on a resonance wavelength of the one or more sensing elements, wherein the wavelength range is associated with a detection limited to a minimum radius of curvature along the fiber sensor; (b) reconstructing the shape of the fiber sensor () involving processing of interferometric signals received from the optical interrogation of the cores (), including reconstructing the shape of at least one out-of-range section along the fiber sensor () which is a section having a radius of curvature lower than the minimum radius of curvature, wherein reconstructing the shape of the at least one out-of-range section includes calculating curvature of the fiber sensor () in the at least one out-of-range section from interferometric signals received from the interrogation of the central core () in the at least one out-of-range section; (c) displaying the shape of the fiber sensor () including the at least one out-of-range section. A system to carry out the method is also described.