Field tests of fibre Bragg grating sensors incorporated into CFRP for railway bridge strengthening condition monitoring

The EU is in the process of upgrading the national railway networks to meet the demands from high-speed passenger trains and heavy Freight traffic. This upgrade necessitates a review of the development and implementation of novel technologies to repair and strengthen the existing bridge structures and to improve their performance.This paper presents the evaluation results of the use of FBG strains sensors incorporated in CFRP (carbon fibre reinforcement polymer) rods and tubes as part of the methodology for monitoring the performance of the NSMR (near surface mounted reinforcement) which is an essential part of the repair and strengthening of bridges. In addition, a new method has been tested for the first time using CFRP tubes which calls for the drilling of holes instead of sawing grooves in the installation process.The paper discusses in some detail the strengthening mechanism, FBG sensor implementation and the electronic system used to interrogate the FBG sensors. The results obtained from the monitoring show that FBG sensors can be integrated into CFRP and that reliable measurements can be made. However, in this particular project, the strain loading is very moderate so consequently the strain levels are in the elastic regime.