Fiber optic sensors for evaluation and monitoring of civil structures

This paper gives an overview of the primary issues of structural health and evaluation monitoring for civil structures, such as bridges, dams, buildings and roadways, and role that fiber optic sensors play in the monitoring efforts. Some of the quantities that need to be measured are displacement, velocity, acceleration, jerk, force, stress, strain, temperature, fracture, moisture, fatigue, and chemical state, i.e. corrosion. Fiber optic sensors have the capability to measure most, if not all, of these quantities. Fiber optic sensors exploit a variety of physical principles through which physical quantities are measured. The particular types of fiber sensors that will be discussed in this paper are: intensity-based, modal domain interferometric, Bragg grating, white light interferometric, and Brillouin backscatter. The operating principles and application results from field and laboratory studies are presented.