Optical fiber sensor (OFS) technologies have developed rapidly over the last few decades, and various types of OFS have found practical applications in the field of civil engineering. In this paper, which is resulting from the work of the RILEM technical committee "Optical fiber sensors for civil engineering applications'', different kinds of sensing techniques, including change of light intensity, interferometry, fiber Bragg grating, adsorption measurement and distributed sensing, are briefly reviewed to introduce the basic sensing principles. Then, the applications of OFS in highway structures, building structures, geotechnical structures, pipelines as well as cables monitoring are described, with focus on sensor design, installation technique and sensor performance. It is believed that the State-ofthe-Art review is helpful to engineers considering the use of OFS in their projects, and can facilitate the wider application of OFS technologies in construction industry.
The relation between the component strain and the strain on a surface-attached optical fiber is governed by the effectiveness of shear transfer through the adhesive and the polymeric coating(s) on the optical fiber. A classical shear lag model can predict the strain transfer through a soft layer well. However, experiments showed that the results are unsatisfactory for bare fiber with stiff adhesive case. A 3D-FEM is established to model the strain transfer of a surface-mounted strain sensor and it is verified by experiments. Then, it is used to investigate the influence of four geometric parameters of the adhesive: (1) side width, (2) top thickness, (3) bond length, (4) bottom thickness, on the strain transfer. By sensitivity analysis, it is revealed that the bond length and the bottom thickness are dominant factors. Based on finite element results, the parameter of the analytical model is modified to suit stiff layer cases. Important considerations for practical installation of surface-attached optical interferometric and FBG strain sensors will be discussed.
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