Distributed Feedback Fiber Laser Acoustic Emission Sensor for Concrete Structure Health Monitoring

This paper introduces a highly-sensitive fiber optical acoustic emission (AE) sensor and a parameter analysis method aiming at concrete structure health monitoring. Distributed feedback fiber-laser (DFB-FL), which is encapsulated to have a high acoustic sensitivity, is used for sensor unit of the AE sensor. The AE signal of concrete beam in different work stages, based on the four-point bending experiment of the concrete beam, is picked up, and the relationship between the concrete beam work stages and the AE parameter is found. The results indicate that DFB-FLAES can be used as sensitive transducers for recording acoustic events and forecasting the imminent failure of the concrete beam.