Development of an Extremely Sensitive Fiber-Optic Vibration/Acoustic Sensing Method

Abstract

A new fiber-optic vibration sensor has been developed and applied to structural health monitoring. The sensor is based on a new finding that frequency of light wave transmitted through a bended optical fiber is shifted by vibration at the bended region. The durable, low-cost and high-sensitive sensor can be used as multi-point AE/vibration sensing system. The new fiver-optic sensing system was applied to health monitoring of a full scale model of a reinforced concrete infrastructure. A method of AE location detection is also proposed based on frequency distribution of AE waveform.