STTR Phase II: Long-Gage Fiber Bragg Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring and Damage Identification

Blue Road Research, Inc, Gresham OR

Investigators

Abstract

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project will further explore the use of long-gage fiber Bragg grating strain sensors in conjunction with vibration-based system identification techniques for health monitoring and damage identification of civil structures. In phase I, the proof of concept was shown based on static and dynamic laboratory experiments on small-scale structural models. In this Phase II effort, field tests on bridges identified in Oregon and California will be performed to further validate this very promising tool for structural health monitoring and damage identification. These bridges provide unique opportunities as two of them are scheduled for demolition and both State Departments of Transportation have agreed to support testing as these bridges are systematically damaged to provide a true real-world test of the damage identification system. These field tests will be an important step in providing feasibility data for future commercialization of the structural health monitoring and damage identification system. Once the proposed methods are debugged and validated for field applications, the California and Oregon DOT's will strongly consider adopting them for widespread use in their structural health-monitoring and bridge rehabilitation programs. The proposed structural health monitoring and damage identification system offers very promising advanced solutions to the triple problem of: (1) monitoring the state-of-health of the civil infrastructure system for optimum allocation of rehabilitation resources, (2) optimally designing the rehabilitation scheme for a specific deficient civil structure, and (3) evaluating the efficacy of the rehabilitation measure.