Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing (DFOS) is one of the promising tools for structure health monitoring. It can measure physical quantities (such as temperature, strain, and vibration) of the fiber continuously along its length for long distances due to its low-loss characteristic. By attaching an optical fiber cable to a structure or embedding it inside a structure, it is possible to monitor the changes of ambient parameters of the structure. The main advantage is its high sensitivity over large distances and the ability to interface with a wide range of measurands in a distributed manner. The systems provide thousands of “strain gauges”, “thermo-couples”, or “accelerometers” along a single fiber optic cable connected to or embedded in structures, which can then serve as a civil infrastructure nerve system. DFOS can provide a highly effective monitoring system for both short and long term to realize our concept of “smart infrastructure”. In this talk, the measurement principles and their state-of-the-art status in terms of their capabilities are discussed.
Donald H. McLaughlin Chair in Mineral Engineering and Chancellor’s Professor
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
Kenichi Soga is the Donald H. McLaughlin Professor at UC Berkeley. Soga is also the Director of the Berkeley Center for Smart Infrastructure, a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and serves as a Special Advisor to the Dean of the College of Engineering for Resilient and Sustainable Systems. Soga’s research focuses on infrastructure sensing, performance-based design and maintenance of infrastructure, energy geotechnics, and geomechanics. He is also a member of several professional organizations, including the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow for the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Engineering Academy of Japan. He is the recipient of several notable awards, including the George Stephenson Medal and Telford Gold Medal from ICE in 2006, the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from ASCE in 2007, and the UCB Bakar Prize for his work on commercialization of smart infrastructure technologies in 2022.