Development of a fibre Bragg grating sensored ground movement monitoring system

Monitoring ground movement manually by lowering an inclinometer probe (IP) in a grouted-in-place casing has been in practice for decades. It is possible to install multiple IP units at various depths in an inclinometer casing to allow automated data logging. The high cost and other problems associated with transmitting signals electrically make an automated IP rather impractical for long term and/or massive deployment. In addition to its small size, available technologies allow optical signals to be transmitted over many kilometres and not be affected by electromagnetic interference. The optical fibre Bragg grating (FBG) is one of the many available fibre optic sensor technologies. The authors used FBG as a sensing medium and developed a ground movement monitoring device referred to as the FBG segmented deflectometer (FBG-SD). The FBG-SD, designed to be inserted into the conventional inclinometer casing, measures the relative deflection between the segments. The amount of lateral movement is computed on the basis of the distribution of the segmented deflections. To verify the effectiveness of the new system, the authors performed indoor as well as field experiments where results from FBG-SDs were compared with conventional IP readings. This paper introduces the design principles of the FBG-SD and describes the performance of the system in their indoor and field applications.