Application And Design of Automatic Water Supplement for Bridge Fiber Optic Settlement Sensor

Application And Design of Automatic Water Supplement for Bridge Fiber Optic Settlement Sensor

This paper is about the design and application of optical fiber differential settlement measurement (DSM) sensors for bridges. In particular, an automatic water supplement tank is introduced to reduce the maintenance work required. By using the law of connected vessels, the buoyancy principle, the two-force member equilibrium condition, and the photo elasticity of fiber Bragg grating (FBG), the DSM sensor is easily manufactured and sensitive to level changes. Besides describing the design principles, this study also illustrates the application of the DSM sensors on underpass bridges. From the field case, the proposed DSM sensors are demonstrated to be stable and precise for monitoring the behavior of multiple-span underpass bridges. Sharing the field experience of the optical fiber DSM sensor is the aim of this study.