A novel durable intelligent fiber reinforced polymer anchor with embedded optical fiber Bragg grating sensors

Anchors are the key members of the geotechnical anchorage engineering, it is urgent to monitor their behavior in service for preventing the potential risks. This paper proposes a novel durable intelligent fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) anchor to understand the behavior of the anchor in the field application. Series of optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors were embedded into the central axis along the anchor to sense itself axial strain variations. An evolution model of axial strain was also developed to evaluate the behavior along the anchor. A demonstration test was carried out to test its self-sensing properties in the laboratory. The experimental results indicated that the embedded FBG sensors monitored the behavior, e.g. axial strain/interfacial damage evolutions along the anchor and displacement/applied load at the pulling end effectively, without influence from the interfacial compression and slip effects.