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Distributed fiber optic strain sensing to assess complex structural behavior

The aging infrastructure crisis in North America presents a number of challenges for engineers charged with assessing and managing these structures. First, it is difficult to determine the effect of deterioration on complex highly redundant structural systems. Severe deterioration may have very little impact on load carrying capacity or may completely alter the load carrying mechanism depending on its location. Second, it is often difficult to detect localized deterioration and distributed subsurface deterioration with current inspection and monitoring techniques. To determine the effect of deterioration on structural systems and to better detect this deterioration, a distributed sensing technology is required to monitor the behavior of the entire structure. This presentation will introduce a distributed fiber optic strain measurement technology and demonstrate its advantages over conventional sensing technologies through three case studies. The first case study will involve a series of tests on metallic structures that illustrate the effectiveness of the technology for localizing and assessing complex behavior. The second case study involves a load test on a reinforced concrete bridge and explores how the data was used to better inform a numerical model developed to assess the bridge. The final case study will investigate the use of distributed strain measurements for assessing the behavior of deteriorated buried pipe structures. In each case, the insights into the behavior of complex systems provided by distributed sensing will be highlighted as well as how the measurements were used to develop more accurate assessments of the structures.

Author(s):

Neil Hoult    
Queen's University
Canada