Sensitivity of Optical Fiber Sensors to Deflection of Reinforced Concrete Beam

Abstract

The capacity of concrete beams will decrease by many external factors. To find simple and reliable method to monitor the quality of concrete beams is a challenging task. An optical-based fiber sensors is very interesting to develop for such task because of its many advantages. In this study, the optical fiber sensors were embedded in reinforced concrete beams to detect and to monitor deflection of the beam where a straight-line configuration of optical fiber was used. We perform experimental work to test performance of the use of optical fiber sensor by collecting data from flexural testing the concrete beam with the Universal Testing Machine (UTM). While the concrete deflection was measured by (linear variable differtial transducer (LVDT) as elongation unit, the fiber optic sensor output was observed in volts unit. We test the sensitivity of the optical fiber sensor by analyzing the relationship graph between the changes in the deflection of the concrete beam and output voltage of optical fiber sensors. The results show that optical fiber sensors have good sensitivity to detect and monitor concrete beam deflection.