Long Term Monitoring of Prestressing Tension Force in Post-Tension UHPC Bridge using Fiber Optical FBG Sensor

Abstract

This paper presents results of one-year monitoring on prestressing force of a 7-wire steel post-tensioning strand which is installed in a UHPC(ultra high performance concrete) bridge with 11.0 m long, 5.0 m wide, and 0.6 m high by using a FBG-encapsulated 7-wire steel strand. The initial prestressing forces and the prestress changes during a vehicle load test were measured using the FBG-encapsulated strand. The results show that the FBG-encapsulated 7-wire strand is very effective for monitoring the prestress forces even the change in the tension force is very small. Additionally, it was indicated that selection of the thermal expansion coefficient which is used for the temperature correction shall be carefully carried out.