A TECHNIQUE FOR EMBEDDING EFPI FIBER OPTIC STRAIN SENSORS IN CONCRETE

SUMMARY EFPI fiber optic strain sensors possess good qualities for ap-plication to civil engineering structures. One of the majorand challenging tasks is the safe embedding of a fragile fiberoptic sensor inside concrete. From this work to develop asuitable technique of embedding fiber optic sensors in con-crete, it was observed that epoxy sheet encapsulation resultsin satisfactory performance compared to the use of acrylicsheets for encapsulation. The epoxy sheet encapsulation alsoshowed satisfactory performance at high strain ranges. References 1. Udd, E., Fiber Optic Smart Structures , John Wiley & Sons,Inc., New York (1995).2. ‘‘ Experimental Studies on Fiber Optic Sensors for Smart Struc-ture Applications, ’’ SERC Research Report, SERC, EML-RR-2001-3, (2002).3. Measures, R.M., Structural Monitoring with Fiber Optic Tech-nology , Academic Press, California (2001).4. Miller, C.E., Sharma, M.G., and Sherwood, J.A., ‘‘ MeasuringSoil Strain Using Fiber Optic Sensor, ’’ Proceedings of SPIE onSmart Structures and Materials, Smart Systems for Bridges, Struc-tures, and Highways, San Diego, California, Vol. 2719, pp 2–13.5. Choquet, P., Juneau, F., and Dadous, F.,