Vibration measurement and mode analysis on concrete structures with embedded fiber Bragg grating sensors

This paper reports our work on the applications of fiber Bragg grating-based strain sensors for the vibration tests and mode analysis on concrete structures. The arrayed fiber grating strain sensors, which were wavelength-division-multiplexed along the fibers, were attached onto the reinforced bars (rebars) before concrete was poured in to form a 5.5m long, 0.3m wide, 0.15m deep reinforced concrete beam. The embedded sensors will provide quasi-distributed real-time dynamic strain information along the length of the beam. For verification with the FBG strain sensors, some electrical accelerometers were also placed on the top surface of the concrete beam. All the data from FBG sensors and electrical accelerometers were recorded and analyzed by a computer. In the experiments, a hammer and an electrical shaker were used to excite the structure. The experimental results obtained with the FBG sensors show good consistency with the theoretical analysis.