Measuring the Heterogeneity of Cement Paste by Truly Distributed Optical Fiber Sensors
Abstract
In this study, a home-built Rayleigh scattering based optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) technique is used for the measurement of strain distribution in a loaded cement paste. The system offers a spatially-continuous strain measurement on an optical fiber with a spatial resolution of 1 cm, dynamic range of 1 km, measurement accuracy of ±2 microstrain, and an update rate of 10 Hz. The feasibility and performance of this technique for detection of uneven strain distribution are studied and evaluated. The distributed optical fiber sensors are embedded in a cement paste cantilever. A controlled deflection is applied at the free end of it, and the strain is measured. The results are compared with the values obtained from theoretical analysis using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and a finite element simulation. The comparison shows a reasonable consistence in overall deformation, demonstrating that the proposed technique can be used for real time strain monitoring in cement based materials; while this technique can reflect the uneven distribution of local strains due to the material heterogeneity with a controllable, high spatial resolution.
Recommended Citation
X. Sun et al., "Measuring the Heterogeneity of Cement Paste by Truly Distributed Optical Fiber Sensors," Construction and Building Materials, vol. 225, pp. 765 - 771, Elsevier Ltd, Nov 2019.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.07.187
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Second Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Center/Lab(s)
INSPIRE - University Transportation Center
Second Research Center/Lab
Center for Research in Energy and Environment (CREE)
Keywords and Phrases
Cement Paste; Distributed Sensing; Optical Fiber; Uneven Strain Distribution
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0950-0618
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Nov 2019
Comments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial and technical support from the Center for Infrastructure Engineering Studies (through Advanced Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure seed funding program) and the Materials Research Center at Missouri University of Science and Technology.