Structural health monitoring by using fiber-optic distributed strain sensors with high spatial resolution

Abstract

In this paper, we review our researches on the topics of the structural health monitoring (SHM) with the fiber-optic distributed strain sensor. Highly-dense information on strains in a structure can be useful to identify some kind of existing damages or applied loads in implementation of SHM. The fiber-optic distributed sensors developed by the authors have been applied to the damage detection of a single-lap joint and load identification of a beam simply supported. We confirmed that the applicability of the distributed sensor to SHM could be improved as making the spatial resolution higher. In addition, we showed that the simulation technique considering both structural and optical effects seamlessly in strain measurement could be powerful tools to evaluate the performance of a sensing system and design it for SHM. Finally, the technique for simultaneous distributed strain and temperature measurement using the PANDA-fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is shown in this paper, because problems caused by the cross-sensitivity toward strain and temperature would be always inevitable in strain measurement for SHM. © 2013 The Author(s).