Pilot study on rugged fiber optic brillouin sensors for large-strain measurements to ensure the safety of transportation structures.

Details

• Creators:
  Chen, Genda ; Zhou, Zhi ; Xaio, Hai ; Huang, Ying
• Corporate Creators:
  Mid-America Transportation Center
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology Administration ; United States. Department of Transportation. University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Fiber optics
  • Time domain reflectometers
  • Bridges
  • Bridge members
  • Multimodal transportation
  • Strain (Mechanics)
  • Carbon fibers
  • Bridges
  • Fiber optics
  • Carbon fibers
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  25-1121-0001-114
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Final report.
• Corporate Publisher:
  Mid-America Transportation Center
• Abstract:
  Brillouin-scattering Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (BOTDR) is a viable technology for simultaneous, distributed ; strain and temperature measurements for miles-long transportation structures. It is a promising tool to ensure the smooth ; operation and safety of bridge structures that are key links in surface transportation networks or between various ; transportation modes: i.e., from airport to train station. Currently, telecom-grade optical fibers are widely used in civil ; engineering for strain and temperature measurements. These fibers are very fragile and easy to break during installation and ; measurement. In order to understand the ultimate behavior of structures, more rugged optical fibers such as carbon/polyimide ; coated fibers were recently proposed. One laboratory study on two single fibers indicated that new carbon/polyimide coated ; fibers can sustain a maximum strain of up to 4%, which can survive any local crack in concrete members or buckling in steel ; members once they are installed on the structural members. This project aimed to characterize the ruggedness and signal loss ; of various packaged optical fibers and validate their performance as sensors. Among the tested optical fibers, bare ; single-mode fibers (SMF-28) with uncoated anchoring have the lowest shear strength and the lowest ultimate strain under ; tension, and are thus not suitable to apply in harsh environments. Polyimide-coated optical fibers have the highest shear ; strength and the highest ultimate strain under tension, making them the best candidate for civil infrastructure applications. ; Both glass fiber reinforcing polymer (GFRP) and carbon coated optical fibers are sufficiently rugged to be applied to civil ; infrastructure.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/25424/dot_25424_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.63 MB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers ; US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:14b02b2d558adedb5de0e2d5b80f5c97548db2627a7d5f7d9686a117f50f06ddeb96e95bdc3f40318778ad4d8e1fe8fabd307cab6c67140b8fcf1fce7c7e07ac