Optical Sensors for the Exploration of Oil and Gas

Al-Fehaid³

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

Red palm weevil (RpW) poses a serious threat to the cultivation of date palms. it is considered to be the most destructive epidemic pest of palms, responsible for massive economic losses worldwide. Curative methods for RPW are not difficult to apply; however, the early detection of the pest remains a great challenge. Although several detection techniques have been implemented for the early detection of RPW, none of these methods have been proven to be reliable. Here, we use an optical-fiber-distributed acoustic sensor (DAS) as a paradigm shift technology for the early detection of RpW. our sensitive sensor shows a detection of feeding sound produced by larvae as young as 12 days, in an infested tree. In comparison with existing, commonly-used technologies, this novel sensing technique represents a cost-effective and non-invasive alternative that could provide 24-7, real-time monitoring of 1,000 palm trees or even more. It could also monitor the temperature, an essential feature to control farm fires, another major problem for the cultivation of palm trees around the world.Red palm weevil (RPW) (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) is a Coleopteran snout pest originating from tropical Asia 1 . In the past few decades, it has spread out to many regions worldwide, including North Africa, the Middle East, Mediterranean region, and parts of the Caribbean and Central America. This plague has wiped out many palm farms in various countries, and constitutes a severe agricultural problem 2-4 . In Gulf countries and the Middle East, $8 millions are spent, every year, only to remove infested palm trees 5 . By 2023, in Italy, Spain and France, it is expected that RPW control and loss of benefits will amount to around $225 million 5 .There are effective techniques to heal RPW-infested palm trees 6 ; however, detecting the RPW threat at an early stage (first two-to-three weeks of the weevil larvae stage) is pivotal, yet challenging 4 . When a palm tree shows visible signs of distress, it generally means that the infestation is well-advanced; at this point, it is too late to rescue the tree. There are several methods to detect this infestation 4,7-12 . For instance, trained dogs are used to smell the odor released from infested palms during the fermentation process 8 . Unfortunately, sensing such kind of odor is not an accurate, nor a selective process, because its efficiency is impacted by the presence of other volatiles. Alternatively, infested trees can be screened with a computer-based tomography system 7 . However, this technique lacks the practicality for fast and cost-effective scanning. The first detectable signals of an infested tree originate from the noise produced by the weevil larvae while consuming the core of a trunk. Therefore, the most promising early detection methods rely on using acoustic sensors 4,9-12 . Existing technologies mainly insert a sound probe into the tree trunk such that the probe records larvae sound in real-time. Unfortunately, this type of acoustic sensors is intrusive to the plant growth, and might cre...

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early detection of red palm weevil using distributed optical sensor

Al-Fehaid³

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

“…One attractive category of them is the distributed optical fiber sensors which monitor a certain parameter, such as vibration or temperature, along the entire fiber with a predetermined spatial resolution [2]. Such distributed fiber optic sensors are used in a myriad of important applications including oil and gas industry [3], real-time structural health monitoring [4], aerospace transportation [5], among others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, MMF is more commonly used than SMF, especially for short-distance applications [10]. For example, there are thousands of MMFs already installed worldwide in oil/gas wells for different purposes including distributed temperature sensing [3]. Consequently, using the already installed MMFs to simultaneously monitor temperature and vibration will be more cost-effective than installing new SMFs for vibration sensing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simultaneous Distributed Acoustic and Temperature Sensing Using a Multimode Fiber

IEEE J. Select. Topics Quantum Electron.

Hveding

et al. 2020

Fiber optic distributed acoustic sensor (DAS) and distributed temperature sensor (DTS) are considerably important for many applications. It is challenging to design a hybrid DAS-DTS system using the same optical fiber because the operation principles of the two sensors are different. We here deploy the widespread standard multimode fiber (MMF) for simultaneous distributed acoustic and temperature sensing. In particular, we operate the MMF in a quasi-single-mode (QSM) state to simultaneously fulfill the functionality requirements of the DAS and DTS. The reported design offers simultaneous vibration and temperature monitoring with high accuracy. In particular, the DAS has a 12.98 dB mean signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the DTS offers temperature measurements with ±1 °C accuracy. This technique is significant for many industrial applications because it efficiently tackles a longstanding issue in practical implementation.

“…Fiber optic distributed sensors have been utilized in many important applications including oil and gas industry [1], realtime monitoring of structural health [2], aerospace transportation [3], among others. In the oil and gas industry, for instance, numerous sensing parameters are recorded within the life of an oil/gas well, starting from the drilling process and throughout the producing period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the oil and gas industry, for instance, numerous sensing parameters are recorded within the life of an oil/gas well, starting from the drilling process and throughout the producing period. Once the production begins, monitoring vibrations and temperatures of the downhole fluid is significantly beneficial to optimize the production process [1]. This can be achieved through using optical fiber distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) [4] and distributed temperature sensing (DTS) [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybrid distributed acoustic-temperature sensing using a few-mode fiber

Photonic Instrumentation Engineering VII

et al. 2020

Optical fiber distributed acoustic sensor (DAS) and distributed temperature sensor (DTS) are considerably desirable for many important applications including oil and gas industry. Simultaneous measurements of vibration and temperature will exclude the need for two separate DAS and DTS systems, reduce overall cost, and ensure continuous real-time monitoring of these two important sensing parameters. We here devise a hybrid DAS-DTS system using a few-mode fiber (FMF). Although the system requirements for DAS and DTS are quite different, FMF is considered an ideal compromise to satisfy the requirements of the two systems.