Distributed strain reconstruction based on a fiber Bragg grating reflection spectrum

In this paper, we present a synthesis of the parameters of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and the reconstruction of the distributed strain affecting the grating, performed by means of its reflection spectrum. For this purpose, we applied the transition matrix method and the Nelder-Mead nonlinear optimization method. Reconstruction results of the strain profile carried out on the basis of a simulated reflection spectrum as well as measured reflection spectrum of the FBG indicate good agreement with the original strain profile; the profile reconstruction errors are within the single digit percentage range. We can conclude that the Nelder-Mead optimization method combined with the transition matrix method can be used for distributed sensing problems.