Static and dynamic bridge monitoring with fiber optic sensors: Fid-Bau Portal

Static and dynamic bridge monitoring with fiber optic sensors

Lloret, S. / Inaudi, D. / Vurpillot, S.

In many concrete bridges, deformations due to static and dynamic loading are the most relevant parameters to be monitored in both the short and long term. Strain monitoring gives only local information about the material behavior and too many of such sensors are therefore necessary to gain a complete understanding of the bridge evolution. Recent advances in measurement technology have demonstrated that optical fiber sensors are suitable for monitoring full-scale structures. A network of such sensors installed inside a bridge enables the measurement of parameters such as internal deformation and temperature. Our laboratory has installed hundreds of fiber optic deformation sensors of varying seizes in concrete and composite steel-concrete bridges. These sensors give useful information during the construction phase and about the long-term geometrical deformations of a bridge under static load. Recently it has been found that these sensors can also be used to measure the quasi-static part of the dynamic deformation of a bridge under traffic load. The measurement technique relies on low-coherent interferometry and it guarantees high resolution, high precision and long-term stability. Nevertheless each measurement takes a few seconds, thus it is inadequate for monitoring the dynamic behavior of bridges, where measurement frequencies of up to 1 kHz are necessary. This paper also presents a new technique to demodulate at a high frequency the signal from the same sensors used for long-term monitoring. With its large dynamic range of several mm it allows for the monitoring of bridges under dynamic loads while maintaining the configuration of the original fiber optic sensor that has been proven to be reliable.