FOSA webinar Bridge Monitoring with Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing - Graz University of Technology

Structural health monitoring of bridges and other critical infrastructure is progressively gaining more importance, especially since many bridges in Central Europe and North America are coming to the end of their design lifetime. Efficient monitoring is therefore necessary to ensure safe operation. Distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) can offer significant advantages compared to point-wise sensors.

This webinar gives insight into the possibilities of distributed fiber optic sensing for bridge monitoring on real-world examples.

In order to measure not only fast changes due to traffic loads but also slow changes caused by temperature or degradation, several different sensor types are usually needed. By using only one fiber, distributed fiber optic sensing can provide both static and dynamic information. On a steel-concrete composite highway bridge in Austria several spans have been equipped with fiber optic sensing cables. By using different DFOS techniques such as Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and Brillouin Optical Frequency Domain Analysis (BOFDA), both dynamic and static monitoring can be realized seamlessly along the sensing cables. Furthermore, Optical Backscatter Reflectometry (OBR) can be used to draw a precise picture of the local strain behavior. Presented by Werner Lienhart, Professor, Head of Institute, Graz University of Technology, Austria, and Lisa Strasser, Research Assistant, Graz University of Technology, Austria.

Lisa Strasser received her master’s degree in engineering geodesy in 2022 at Graz University of Technology. She wrote her diploma thesis about Distributed Acoustic Sensing and has since then been working in fiber optics while being responsible for several DAS related projects.

Werner Lienhart studied surveying in UK and Austria and is full professor at Graz University of Technology, Austria. Prior to his university position, he was product manager at Leica Geosystems in Switzerland. Werner has more than 20 years of experience in fiber optic sensing, published more than 150 scientific articles and is president of the International Society of Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure (ISHMII).

For more information about the Institute of Engineering Geodesy and Measurement Systems, Graz University of Technology please visit: https://www.tugraz.at/institute/igms/...

For more information about the Fiber Optic Sensing Association please visit: https://fiberopticsensing.org/