Estimation Method of Strain Distribution for Safety Monitoring of Multi-span Steel Beam Using FBG Sensor

Abstract

This study proposes an estimation method of strain distribution for multi-span steel beam structure under unspecific loading conditions. The estimation method in this paper employs the curve fitting using the least square method from measured strain data, not analytical method. To verify the proposed estimation method, a static loading test for multi-span steel beam on which distributed and concentrated loads act was conducted. The strain data for verification was measured by FBG sensors that have multiplexing technology. The analysis of the accuracy of strain estimation for distributed and concentrated loads and the errors by considering the number of measured points used in the estimation were conducted. In the maximum strain points, the strains could be estimated with the errors of 5.89% (loading step 1) and 6.26% (loading step 2). In case of decreasing the number of sensors, it was also confirmed that the errors increased (0.26~0.37%). Through the curve fitting method, it is possible to estimate the strain distribution (maximum strains and their locations) of multi-span beam for unspecific loads and go over the limit of the analytical estimation method which is suitable for specific distributed loads.