AUTHOR=Sun Meng-Ya , Shi Bin , Guo Jun-Yi , Zhu Hong-Hu , Jiang Hong-Tao , Liu Jie , Wei Guang-Qing , Zheng Xing 

TITLE=Development and Application of Fiber-Optic Sensing Technology for Monitoring Soil Moisture Field

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sensors

VOLUME=Volume 2 - 2021

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sensors/articles/10.3389/fsens.2021.796789

DOI=10.3389/fsens.2021.796789

ISSN=2673-5067

ABSTRACT=Accurate acquisition of the moisture field distribution in in-situ soil is of great significance to prevent geological disasters and protect soil ecological environment. In recent years, the rapidly developed fiber-optic sensing technology has outstanding advantages such as distributed measurement, long-distance monitoring and good durability, which provides a new technical means for soil moisture field monitoring. After several years of technical research, the authors’ group has made a number of new achievements in the development of fiber-optic sensing technology for soil moisture field, that is, two new fiber-optic sensing technologies for soil moisture content, including the actively heated fiber Bragg grating (AH-FBG) technology and the actively heated distributed temperature sensing (AH-DTS) technology, and a new fiber-optic sensing technology for soil pore gas humidity are developed. This paper systematically summarizes the three fiber-optic sensing technologies for soil moisture field, including sensing principle, sensor development and calibration test. Moreover, the practical application cases of three fiber-optic sensing technologies are introduced. Finally, the development trend of fiber-optic sensing technology for soil moisture field in the future is summarized and prospected.