Distributed optical fiber sensing bonding techniques performance for embedment inside reinforced concrete structures
Journal article, 2020

Distributed optical fiber sensors (DOFS) are modern-day cutting-edge monitoring tools that are quickly acquiring relevance in structural health monitoring engineering. Their most ambitious use is embedded inside plain or reinforced concrete (RC) structures with the scope of comprehending their inner-workings and the functioning of the concrete-reinforcement interaction. Yet, multiple studies have shown that the bonding technique with which the DOFS are bonded to the reinforcement bars has a significant role on the quality of the extracted strain data. Whilst this influence has been studied for externally bonded DOFS, it has not been done for embedded ones. The present article is set on performing such study by monitoring the strain measurement quality as sampled by DOFS bonded to multiple rebars with different techniques and adhesives. These instrumented rebars are used to produce differently sized RC ties later tested in tension. The discussion of the test outputs highlights the quasi-optimal performance of a DOFS/rebar bonding technique consisting of incising a groove in the rebar, positioning the DOFS inside it, bonding it with cyanoacrylate and later adding a protective layer of silicone. The resulting data is mostly noisefree and anomalies-free, yet still presents a newly diagnosed hitch that needs addressing in future research.

Reinforced concrete

Structural health monitoring

Optical fibers

Distributed sensing

Steel strains

Author

Mattia Francesco Bado

Polytechnic University of Catalonia

Vilniaus Gedimino technikos universitetas

Joan R. Casas

Polytechnic University of Catalonia

Alinda Dey

Vilniaus Gedimino technikos universitetas

Carlos Gil Berrocal

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering

Sensors

1424-8220 (ISSN) 1424-3210 (eISSN)

Vol. 20 20 1-23 5788

SensIT - Sensor driven cloud-based strategies for infrastructure management

Thomas Concrete Group, 2018-07-01 -- 2020-08-31.

Swedish Transport Administration (2018/27871), 2018-07-01 -- 2020-08-31.

Microsoft Research, 2018-07-01 -- 2020-08-31.

WSP Sverige, 2018-07-01 -- 2020-08-31.

NCC AB, 2018-07-01 -- 2020-08-31.

Subject Categories

Medical Laboratory and Measurements Technologies

Other Medical Engineering

Other Materials Engineering

DOI

10.3390/s20205788

PubMed

33066138

More information

Latest update

1/28/2021