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Local scour is one of the major factors for bridge failure. Scour failures tend to occur suddenly and without prior warning or sign of distress to the structure. Two types of real-time monitoring systems for bridge scour, using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, have been developed and tested in the laboratory. These FBG scour-monitoring systems can measure both the processes of scouring/deposition and the variations of water level. Several experimental runs have been conducted in the flume to demonstrate the applicability of the FBG systems. The experimental results indicate that the real-time monitoring system has the potential for further applications in the field.

This paper presents the complete test results of a prestressed concrete (PC) beam, including the hydration temperature of the hardening process, the behavior of the PC beam under sustained loading and assessment of damage, such as the locations of cracks and their corresponding depth. Hydration temperatures during the hardening process were determined using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, while the behavior of the PC beam, under sustained loading, was evaluated and compared using conventional sensors as well as FBG sensors embedded in, or surfaced mounted onto, the PC beam. In addition, a new concept, involving an optical FBG based technique to detect and locate structural damage, such as crack location and depth, is demonstrated.