Optical fiber sensors for static and dynamic health monitoring of civil engineering infrastructures: Abode wall case study

Nowadays, structural health monitoring is a fundamental tool to control the civil infrastructures lifetime. Raw earth masonry structures (as adobe, rammed earth, among other techniques) were very common in many regions of the World. With the introduction of reinforced concrete structures in the construction industry, the adoption of traditional masonry systems, and adobe in particular, rapidly declined. However, an important number of the adobe buildings in the world are of cultural, historical and architectural recognized value, presently, about 30% of the World population lives in raw earth buildings.     

Time-domain analysis of piezoelectric impedance-based structural health monitoring using multilevel wavelet decomposition

A new approach to analyze the response from a piezoelectric wafer in an impedance-based structural health monitoring (SHM) method is proposed. It is shown that the time-domain response of a piezoceramic wafer provides information on the electromechanical impedance (EMI) variation when a monitored structure is damaged. Practical analysis was carried out using wavelet transform in two different levels. This approach simplifies EMI based SHM and the results show that it is more sensitive to damage than methods based on impedance measurements in the frequency domain. The efficiency of this new approach is demonstrated through experiments using an aluminum plate. The piezoelectric wafer was excited using a chirp signal and its response was analyzed using both frequency response functions (FRF) and the proposed method. The results confirm that this new approach is more sensitive to detect damage than FRF based methods.     

Self-powered structural health monitoring with nonlinear energy harvesting system

The present paper describes the application of the fully self-powered structural health monitoring (SHM). Based on the nonlinear process of microgenerators that directly convert ambient mechanical energy into electrical energy, using the synchronized switch harvesting (SSH) method developed in our laboratory, the nonwired SHM system is equipped. The system is separated into two parts. One is an autonomous wireless transmitter (AWT), its mass is 28.9 g, and it generates a radio frequency (RF) signal and a Lamb waveform as a damage index signal. Another part is these receivers, called autonomous wireless receiver (AWR), and its weight is of 67.6 g. A preliminary design of the device using shelf electronics and surface mounted piezoelectric patches is presented. The energy balance shows that more than enough energy to operate these processes can be obtained within 10 s (when around 50 Hz and more than 2 MPa of the stress level). Some different damage index measurements of SHM are finally discussed.     

用于船舶结构监测的大量程光纤布拉格光栅应变传感器

平板结构的贴片式光纤光栅传感器应变测量范围较小,难以满足船舶结构健康监测中的应变测量要求。本文采用不锈钢材质,设计了一种采用环形平面弹簧和平板复合结构的贴片式传感器,通过环形平面弹簧结构将复合结构的大应变转化为光栅的小应变,降低被测物体与光栅之间的应变耦合系数,实现了大应变测量。理论分析了复合结构的传感原理,通过有限元方法仿真了该结构的应力分布,结果证明了该结构能够实现大应变测量。将传感器胶粘在特种钢试件上进行了载荷试验,试验结果表明:该复合结构传感器的量程大于20 000με,且线性度较好,相关系数大于0.99。另外,设计的传感器体积较小,便于安装,能较好地解决船舶结构健康监测中的大应变测量问题。     

A review of previous studies on the applications of optical fiber sensors in geotechnical health monitoring

In recent decades, conventional electric instruments have already been widely used to monitor the performance of geotechnical structures. However, there are several inherent limitations of electric instruments for engineering including: electromagnetic interference, a large number of cables for multipoint measurement, signal loss in long distance transmission, and poor durability. Since the first Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor was fabricated in 1978, a significant progress has been made on the commercialization of optical fiber sensing technologies. In 1980s, a fully distributed sensing technology named Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis (BOTDA) has been proposed and developed for measuring strain and temperature. In this paper, the authors review previous studies on the development and application of fiber optic sensors. Based on the measured strains, various analysis methods were transferred to required parameters such as displacement, force and pressure which can more directly reflect the safety of geotechnical structures under complex engineering stress condition.     

Digital monitoring and health diagnosis for mechanical equipment operation safety based on fiber Bragg grating sensor

This paper introduces fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based on a fiber optic grating sensor developed to be embedded on mechanical equipment for digital monitoring and health diagnosis. The theoretical and experimental researches on the new-style FBG sensor (FBGS) technology, high-speed demodulation, and data transmission are discussed. The transmission characteristics between the FBG and the detection interface, modeling and compensation method for online distributed multi-parameter digital monitoring and methods for data processing, synchronous sampling, and long-term dynamic digital monitoring using embedded technology are also presented. The acquired information by an FBGS can be used for the optimization of maintenance schedules and refinement of mechanical equipment design. It is a challenge to gather real-time data from components working at high speed and in a severe environment of high temperature, high pressure, and high rotation speed. Currently, there are no sensors or technologies available for digital monitoring and health diagnosis under this rigorous situation for use in mechanical engineering operation safety. As a result, this paper introduces an online distributed and integrated digital monitoring system and health diagnosis. The new principle and new method will contribute to modern measurements in science and technology, mechanical engineering, and large mechanical equipment operation safety.     

基于相控阵的结构损伤范围监测与图像表征

本文针对碳纤维复合材料机翼盒段监测损伤信号微弱难以有效辨识及结构损伤大小的量化问题,提出基于相控阵的碳纤维复合材料结构损伤识别成像与损伤量化方法。利用Lamb波信号在特定方向上的干涉,实现对结构的定向扫描,提高信号的信噪比;通过划分扇环计算其面积进而量化损伤区域大小,同时分析时间延迟执行过程并分析其对损伤识别误差的影响。采用相控阵监测原理在某型无人机碳纤维复合材料机翼盒段上进行实验研究,识别结构中的损伤,对监测结果进行成像,不仅显示结构中损伤的位置并计算量化损伤区域大小,实验研究证明,采用相控阵原理能够有效精确地识别碳纤维复合材料机翼盒段中损伤,图像表征清晰且量化损伤范围准确。     

Intelligent monitoring and diagnosis for modern mechanical equipment based on the integration of embedded technology and FBGS technology

The embedded technology as a technological fundament plays an important role in the intelligent monitoring and diagnosis for modern mechanical equipment (MME). The fiber Bragg grating sensor (FBGS) technology has been rapidly applied to most of the industrial and mechanical engineering fields in recent years. This paper focuses on the new principle and new method of intelligent monitoring and diagnosis system for MME based on the integration of embedded technology and FBGS technology. According to the principle of embedded technology, the embedded network and fieldbus gateway for the integration of monitoring and diagnosis system are investigated, and the embedded high-speed demodulation is studied. Based on FBGS, the new embedded sensor for online state monitoring of MME is introduced. Moreover, the embedded sensing signal processing and data transmission, which can meet the requirements of multi-parameter measurement, synchronous sampling and long-term intelligent monitoring for MME, are proposed. In addition, by integrating the FBGS technology and embedded technology, the embedded integration system of intelligent monitoring and diagnosis for MME is presented.     

Simultaneous distributed measurement of the strain and temperature for a four-point bending test using polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating interrogated by optical frequency domain reflectometry

We demonstrate a simultaneous distributed strain and temperature measurement technique with the spatial resolution of 1 mm using fiber Bragg gratings inscribed in a polarization-maintaining and absorption-reducing fiber (PANDA-FBGs) and optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR). We conduct four-point bending tests in an environmental chamber. Using high birefringent PANDA-FBGs that are manufactured specifically for the simultaneous measurements, the uniform temperature distributions and the typical strain distribution profiles of the four-point bending tests were successfully obtained. The measurement errors of strain were from −31 με to 19 με, and of temperature were from −0.9 °C to 1.3 °C. The spatial standard deviation was 7.5 με and 0.9 °C. We also discussed the effect of the residual strain of the sensor-bonding procedures and the data averaging.