Structural health monitoring with fiber optic sensors

Optical fiber sensors have been successfully implemented in aeronautics, mechanical systems, and medical applications. Civil structures pose further challenges in monitoring mainly due to their large dimensions, diversity and heterogeneity of materials involved, and hostile construction environment. This article provides a summary of basic principles pertaining to practical health monitoring of civil engineering structures with optical fiber sensors. The issues discussed include basic sensor principles, strain transfer mechanism, sensor packaging, sensor placement in construction environment, and reliability and survivability of the sensors. © 2009 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH.