Indoor Study on Road Crack Monitoring Based on Polymer Optical Fiber Sensing Technology

Abstract

Abstract The polymer optical fiber sensor was applied to develop the crack modulator in order to monitor the crack transmission in asphalt pavement. The plate specimens were prepared to simulate the asphalt pavement with cracks by using the grooving method, and the developed crack modulator was then used to monitor the bending loss of the polymer optical fiber sensor for cracks with different angles and widths. The theoretical analysis results show that the optical fiber is bent to the S-shape at the crack position, and the smaller incident angle and bending radius generate the smaller output power and higher optical power loss. The Logistic model and the Gomperz model were used to describe the relationship between the crack parameters and the polymer optical loss value. The bending radius of the fiber and the optical loss increased gradually, while the optical power value decreased as the crack width increased. By comparing and analyzing the error and error rate of those two prediction models, the Gomperz model was more accurate in the prediction of pavement crack width.