Inspection and monitoring of engineering structures by means of optical displacement sensors based on interferometry techniques

Inspection and monitoring of engineering structures require simple, fast and remote acquisition, processing and visualization of relevant measuring data. Systems which utilize all above requirements are fundamental for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). All necessary information should refer to safety threshold and sent to end user, who can accurately assess the health of an object in short time and schedule necessary actions in order to prevent accidences. The paper presents the novel approach to optical displacements sensors. Authors describe low-cost in-plane displacement and strain sensors for monitoring in crucial regions of big civil engineering structures (square millimeters area around welds, joints etc.) by means of two interferometry techniques: Grating Interferometry (GI) and Digital Speckle Pattern Interferometry (DSPI). In principle both of the methods applied have their specific requirements and can be used as complementary ones. GI requires specimen grating attached to the flat surface of an object under test, but it is the unique technique which may provide the information about fatigue process and increased residual stresses. DSPI works with a rough object surface, but due to differential measurements cannot be simply used for long time monitoring but to explore the actual behavior of a structure. We present both sensors working separately, but also we propose the technique which enables usage of the DSPI for long time or periodic monitoring by combining it in one sensor with GI in order to increase number of possible applications of the system. Both sensors can be manufactured by using low – cost replication technologies. The paper presents their mechanical and optical design along with laboratory tests of their main modules which are the sensor heads in the form of monolithic (plastic) and cavity waveguides. Finally, the exemplary applications of sensors in laboratory tests and on exemplary frame truss structure are presented and assessed.