Review of the use of the optical fibers for safety applications in tunnels and car parks: Pollution monitoring, fire and explosive gas detection

Abstract

Optical fiber sensors bring to measurement systems all the advantages offered by the optical fiber technology. The potential applications for these sensors are numerous and can spread from medical diagnosis to pipe line monitoring passing through geological measurements. This chapter will focus on the applications in road tunnels and undercroft car parks monitoring. It will detail the existing optical fiber sensor methods, commercially available or under development in the field of air quality monitoring, in particular NO2 that is representative of toxic automotive pollution, flaming fire detection and combustible gas leak detection (in particular methane and hydrogen).