Fiber Optic Sensors and Sensor Networks Using a Time-domain Sensing Scheme

Chuji Wang, Malik Kaya, Peeyush Sahay, Haifa Alali, Robert Reese

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS-39759, USA.
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS-39759, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/opj.2013.32B055                

Abstract

Fiber loop ringdown (FLRD) has demonstrated to be capable of sensing various quantities, such as chemical species, pressure, refractive index, strain, temperature, etc.; and it has high potential for the development of a sensor network. In the present work, we describe design and development of three different types of FLRD sensors for water, cracks, and temperature sensing in concrete structures. All of the three aforementioned sensors were indigenously developed very recently in our laboratory and their capabilities of detecting the respective quantities were demonstrated. Later, all of the sensors were installed in a test grout cube for real-time monitoring. This work presents the results obtained in the laboratory-based experiments as well as the results from the real-time monitoring process in the test cube.

Keywords

Fiber Loop Ringdown; Structural Health Monitoring; Water, Crack, and Temperature Sensing; Sensor Network

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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