Structural Shape Reconstruction of FBG Flexible Plate Using Modal Superposition Method

Abstract

Structural shape reconstruction is a critical issue for real-time structural health monitoring in the fields of engineering application. This paper shows how to implement structural shape reconstruction using a small number of strain data measured by fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. First, the basic theory of structural shape reconstruction is introduced using modal superposition method. A transformation is derived from the measured discrete strain data to global displacement field through modal coordinate, which is the same for strain mode shape superposition and displacement mode shape superposition. Then, optimization of the sensor layout is investigated to achieve the effective reconstruction effect. Finally, structural shape reconstruction algorithm using modal superposition method is applied in experiments. The experiment results show that the reconstructed displacements match well with those measured by a laser displacement sensor and the proposed approach is a promising method for structural shape reconstruction.