Optical fiber sensing textile for temperature and strain distributed measurement

Distributed sensors have become a great advantage for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) as they allow for the multiple points measurement using a single sensor. Nevertheless, the installation of this technology can be time-consuming and have an impact on the overall cost of the project. For this reason, this paper explores the application of different techniques for embedding fiber optic cable into textile for Distributed Optical Sensors which could greatly reduce the installation time. This embedding also provides the ability to design sensors with different patterns that enable monitoring structures like pipelines, bridges, and others. In this paper we have identified an embedding technique that does not damage the fiber optic cable. Additionally, the sensors were tested to study their response to temperature and strain by using Brillouin Optical Time Domain Amplification (BOTDA) interrogation technique.