Monitoring structures with optical fibers: infiltration detection

ABSTRACT The use of sensors and optical fibers for monitoring structures is continuously growing. Strains, displacements, accelerations, temperatures are just a few of the monitoring possibilities. In the case of dam structures, concrete face rockfill dams constitute a type of structures where the monitoring of water infiltrations is of particular interest. In large structures of this type, opening of slab joints is a common effect of general strain distributions, but crack formation may also occur as a result of high compressive stresses, during and after the reservoir filling stage. In this ...