Structural health monitoring in buildings, bridges and civil engineering

Monitoring the in-service structural behavior of engineering structures has become a primary requirement on assessing their safety and integrity. Owing to their outstanding features, such as high sensitivity, multiplexing, capability, lightweight, easy application, noise immunity and harsh environmental resistance, Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) have emerged as attractive sensors for monitoring, diagnostic and control in civil structures. In this work, we present recent research and development activities in structural health monitoring using FBG sensors. A brief survey on FBG based sensors, suitable for in-line monitoring, is carried out. Several implementations are described in order to illustrate the use of quasi distributed system as reliable, non destructive in situ monitoring tool. Finally, limitation and market barriers related to the use of FBG sensors have been argued.