A Feasibility Study on the Application of Fiber-Optic Distributed Sensors for Strain Measurement in the Taiwan Strait Tunnel Project

Taiwan Strait Tunnel (TST) will be an extra-long tunnel or tunnel-bridge complex, running over 150 km of seafloor geologic body with complicated topographic and geologic units. It is therefore necessary to measure and monitor the strain distribution along the TST. In this article, the Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometer (BOTDR), a newly developed strain measurement and monitoring technology, is introduced, and the feasibility of its application in the strain monitoring for TST is analyzed through the monitoring achievement with BOTDR of a tunnel located in Nanjing City, China. The results indicate that the BOTDR has many unique merits such as distributed measurement, long-distance, real-time, and resistibility for strain monitoring application in a tunnel such as TST. Finally, apreliminary scheme for BOTDR application in TST monitoring is proposed.