Strain monitoring of reinforced concrete with OTDR-based FBG interrogation technique

An experimental study is presented of the application of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) interrogation method based on optical time-domain reflectometery (OTDR) to monitoring strain in bent reinforced concrete beams. The results obtained with the OTDR-based method are shown to agree well with the direct spectral measurements. Strain sensitivity, resolution and measurement range amounted to 0.0028 dB/strain; 30 strain; 4000 strain, correspondingly. Significant differences are observed in surface and inner deformations of the test beams which can be attributed to different mechanical properties of concrete and steel reinforcement. The prospects of using OTDR-based FBG interrogation technique in real-life applications are discussed.