Abstract

This paper presents a novel fiber optic accelerometer system for monitoring vibration of large-size structures. The system is composed of one (or multiple) sensor head, a light control unit and a signal processing unit. The sensing mechanism of the sensor head is based on a novel integration of the moire fringe phenomenon with fiber optics to achieve a robust performance in addition to its immunity to EM interference, easy cabling, and low cost. In this paper, a prototype of the fiber optic accelerometer system has been developed successfully. A low-cost light control unit has been developed to drive the system's optic and electronic components. A unique algorithm has also been developed to derive the sensor's acceleration from the raw signals of the light control unit; it is implemented via a separate signal processing unit. Finally, the shaking table tests successfully demonstrate the performance and the potential of the moire fringe fiber optic sensor system to monitor the health of civil infrastructures.

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