Theoretical study of optimal gauge length in a helically wound cable for distributed acoustic sensing system

A series of theoretical study of HWC for distributed acoustic sensing system is proposed to optimize the gaugh length. With the considition of SNR and spatial resolution, the optimal gaugh length is 0.4/(sinαcosθ) to 0.5/(sinαcosθ) times of the Ricker wavelet’s spatial wavelength, when the Ricker wavelet seismic wave travelles to the HWC with the wrapping angle α and the incident angle θ. Similar with the situation in DAS with straight fiber, the optimal gaugh length can achieve the SNR bigger than 90% of the maximum, and the deviation of detected temporal wavelength is less than 14%. Additional coefficient of 1/sinαcosθ is provided to any imping angle of the seismic wave and wrapping angle for the normal working environment.