Patent ID: 7628533

Claim:
A distributed sensor system for locating and measuring corrosion on an object or objects on which a single line of optical sensing fiber is deployed in close proximity comprising: a. an electromagnetic radiation source for emitting an emission of light; b. an optical sensing fiber coupled to said electromagnetic radiation source, said optical sensing fiber illuminated by said electromagnetic radiation source and wherein said optical sensing fiber comprises: i. a core; ii. a cladding surrounding said core; iii. wherein a luminescent material is integrated into the cladding surrounding said core and provides a backscatter emission; iv. and wherein said luminescent material is selected to interact with corrosion chemicals so that the luminescent material's resulting backscatter emission changes in intensity and/or peak wavelength when exposed to corrosion of said object or objects; c. an optical filter used to filter the backscatter emission to provide a filtered backscatter emission; d. an optical switch that selects between the backscatter emission and the filtered backscatter emission; e. a first photo detector for receiving and measuring either the backscatter emission or the filtered backscatter emission; f. a second photo detector for receiving and measuring said emission of light; g. a bi-directional fiber splitter that provides the light path from said electromagnetic radiation source to said line of optical sensing fiber and the light path from said backscatter emission to said photo detectors; and h. a signal processor for receiving outputs from said first and second detectors for determining corrosion location and magnitude.