Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing (DFOS) has expanded current pipeline leak detection technologies (LDS), providing a significant set of new capabilities. This paper briefly reviews the main types of DFOS technologies used for pipeline monitoring. There are different types of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) that make LDS selection somewhat complex for a specific application.

The DFOS LDS selection process must take into consideration the correlation between the “leak signature” of a particular pipeline and the LDS methods provided by different DFOS technologies. DFOS LDS can play a significant role in modern pipeline leak management, improving performance, and regulatory compliance.