Fiber optic communications with subsea sensors

• US 10,175,094 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2015
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Exxonmobil Upstream Research Company (Exxon Mobil Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Exxonmobil Upstream Research Company (Exxon Mobil Corporation)
• Inventors: Starkey, Michael G., Corbett, Kevin T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kwok, Helen C
• Application Number:
  US14/930,798
• Publication Number:
  US 20160161327A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,162 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 9/004 using fibre optic sensors light guides per se G02B6/00, acousto-optical devices specially adapted for gating or modulating in optical wave guides G02F1/125

Abstract

The present techniques are directed to systems and methods for monitoring parameter data from sensors, for example, in a subsea environment. In one method, an electrical signal including data from the subsea unit is converted into an acoustic signal. The acoustic signal is directed through the water column towards a fiber optic cable. The acoustic signal is detected by changes in a light signal carried in the fiber optic cable, and the changes in the light signal are decoded to obtain a data stream representing the parameter data.

Claims

1. A sensing system, comprising:

a sensor configured to measure parameter data;

a transducer unit configured to convert an electrical signal from the sensor that is representative of the parameter data into an encoded acoustic signal representative of the electrical signal;

a fiber optic system in proximity to the transducer unit, wherein the fiber optic system is configured for monitoring or transferring data via optical signals not related to the parameter data and directly detecting the acoustic signal from the transducer unit to produce modified optical signals;

a fiber optic analyzer configured to decode the modified optical signals from the fiber optic system to produce a data stream; and

a deconvolution system configured to separate the parameter data from the data stream in the modified optical signals.

2. The sensing system of claim 1, further comprising a subsea unit.

3. The sensing system of claim 1, wherein the encoded acoustic signal is conducted to the fiber optic system through a water column.

4. The sensing system of claim 1, wherein the fiber optic system comprises a pipeline monitoring system, a subsea equipment monitoring system, or both.

5. The sensing system of claim 1, wherein the fiber optic system comprises a communications system.

6. The sensing system of claim 1, wherein the transducer unit is modular.

7. The sensing system of claim 1, wherein the transducer unit comprises an internal power supply.

8. The sensing system of claim 7, wherein the internal power supply is configured to be charged from an external power source.

9. The sensing system of claim 1, comprising a power connection from an external power source.

10. The sensing system of claim 1, wherein the data stream comprises a time sequence of three dimensional data arrays comprising signal intensity (z) over frequency (x) and distance from the fiber optic analyzer (y).

11. The sensing system of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a subsea sensor and the parameter data includes a temperature, a pressure, a level, or any combinations thereof.

12. The sensing system of claim 1, comprising a wet-mated connection between the sensor and the transducer unit.

13. The sensing system of claim 1, comprising an electrical cable directly wiring the sensor to the transducer unit.

14. The sensing system of claim 1, comprising a plurality of sensors each directly wired to the transducer unit.

15. The sensing system of claim 1, comprising a wet-mated connection between an external power source and an internal power source.

16. The sensing system of claim 1, comprising a plurality of sensors and a plurality of transducer units each transducer unit configured to convert the electrical signal received into an acoustic signal.

17. A method for monitoring a subsea unit, comprising:

converting an electrical signal comprising parameter data from the subsea unit into an acoustic signal;

directing the acoustic signal through a water column towards a fiber optic cable;

directly detecting, by the fiber optic cable, the acoustic signal by changes in a light signal carried in the fiber optic cable; and

decoding the changes in the light signal to obtain a data stream representing the parameter data.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising converting the electrical signal into a digital data stream prior to converting the parameter data into the acoustic signal.

19. The method of claim 17, comprising separating the parameter data from data not related to the parameter data by deconvolution, and sending the parameter data to a control system.

20. The method of claim 17, comprising placing the fiber optic cable proximate to a source of the acoustic signal.

21. The method of claim 17, comprising placing a source of the acoustic signal proximate to the fiber optic cable.

22. The method of claim 17, comprising monitoring a pipeline with the fiber optic cable.

23. The method of claim 17, comprising carrying a network communications signal over the fiber optic cable.

24. A method for monitoring data, comprising:

converting an electrical signal comprising parameter data into an acoustic signal;

directly detecting the acoustic signal by changes in a light signal carried in a fiber optic cable that is also carrying other data unrelated to the parameter data;

converting the light signal into an electrical signal representing a data stream; and

deconvoluting the electrical signal to separate the parameter data from the data stream.

25. The method of claim 24, comprising sending the data stream to a control system.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the other data is related to monitoring a pipeline in a separate monitoring system using the fiber optic cable.