Field Verification of Distributed Acoustic Fiber Optic Sensor System Using Customized Disturbance Simulator Equipment

In this letter, we demonstrate field verification of a distributed acoustic fiber optic sensor system (DAS) in a semicontrolled environment using a custom-designed simulator in which a movement above a fiber optic cable is aided by a track assembly of about 45 m long. The simulator is able to demonstrate three types of disturbance actions namely tire rotation, stepping actions, and drilling actions on a buried fiber optic cable under a 0.5-m Earth surface laid outside a laboratory environment with a fiber optic total length of 11 700 m. These actions of stepping, tire rotations, and drilling emulate real-life applications, such as walking, vehicle movement, and digging, respectively.