ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Distributed optical fiber sensors (DOFS) is one of the most promising and exciting technologies under research to be applied in the structural health monitoring (SHM) of civil engineering infrastructures. Therefore, in this paper, the authors present a laboratory experiment where a reinforced concrete beam was instrumented with a 5-meter-long polyimide DOFS in a way that four equal segments were bonded to the bottom surface of the beam using for each segment a different type of adhesive. Three strain gauges were also used to compare the results. The beam was then loaded, generating expected equal levels of strain for each of the segments allowing for a direct comparison between them. In this exercise, additionally to the comparison with the other instrumented sensors it is also important the consideration and analysis of the associated Spectral Shift Quality (SSQ) values of the DOFS measurements.
