CRACK MONITORING IN A ROAD TUNNEL BY

PLASTIC OPTICAL FIBRE SENSING

L. Schenato*, G. Marcato*, M. Ahlstedt †, S. Dwivedi †, D. Janse-Van Vuuren †, A. Pasuto*

*Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection, National Research Council, Padova, Italy, [email protected]
†
Avago Technologies fibre GmbH, Regensburg, Germany, [email protected]

In this work, a low cost optical fibre sensing system for demanding for the current sensors technology, in term of
concrete cracks assessment inside a road tunnel is presented. A number of sensors and spatial sampling. Unless a sensor is
plastic optical fibre, with large dynamic strain range is used for installed very close to the crack source location, it will not be
sensing cracks. The system exploits a commercially available able to sense any early stage crack related activity. Thus, many
interrogator capable of estimating integral deformation of the point-wise sensors, like accelerometers,
cable via a phase measurement of a RF modulated optical extensometers/crackmeters or strain gauges, deployed very
signal. densely would be required.

Introduction Point-wise sensors, like the aforementioned ones, are currently

available in different technologies, such as electronic, electro-
Degradation of concrete is an unavoidable phenomenon that mechanical and optical devices. In addition, several fibre optic
severely affects structures and buildings, like road tunnels, sensors (FOSs) have been proposed in recent years for
bridges and dams. Short-term monitoring campaigns on such geotechnical applications [1], including concrete monitoring
structures are of extreme importance for the detection of the [2]. In particular, two of the main advantages of FOSs, in this
deterioration process at very early stages. In addition, long- field of application, are represented by the intrinsic integration
term monitoring is crucial, because it is mandatory for of the communication/sensing function and the multiplex
maintenance actions to be taken in due time, thus avoiding capability, which significantly simplify the sensors cabling.
unrecoverable damages to the structures. From the economic Nonetheless, as mentioned above, standard point-wise sensors,
point of view, that allows the lifetime of the structure to be including optical fibre based ones, can fail to sense/detect the
extended, and from the users’ safety aim, it contributes to crack, due to not proper installation or position and to complex
reduce the occurring of life-threatening situations. evolution of the crack.

The main effect of degradation is the formation and Others, more innovative, sensors are the so-called distributed
propagation of cracks, due to the low tensile strength of the sensors, to which only some types of optical fibre sensors
concrete. Presence, formation and growth of cracks represent belong. Distributed fibre optic sensors (DFOSs) enable the
an index of the health condition of the structure, and can be measurement of a physical field, like strain and temperature,
used as a first assessment of the concrete degradation. with spatial resolution of few centimetres, or even less, along
Surrounding environment conditions have to be considered the entire fibre [3]. Therefore, by instrumenting a structure
also: indeed, civil structures are often exposed to harsh with a fibre cable, cracks induced strain can be detected and
conditions, which accelerate the degradation process. Besides measured [4]. Unfortunately, the cost of DFOSs systems is
that, civil structures may be also affected by existing natural very high. Another issue of DFOSs and, in general, of all FOSs,
hazards, like landslides and floods, for which the monitoring is the limited range of deformation that optical fibres can
action requires special attention because of the nature, often withstand before breaking, which is in the order of 10.000 με
unpredictable, of the involved phenomena. (1%) for long-term strain. That strongly limits the application
of fibre optic sensors technology to short-term cracks
Civil structures affected by landslides and other natural monitoring and detection. In that regard, they are not suitable
hazards, usually show several cracks in the concrete lining and for long-term monitoring of existing cracks, due to the limited
attention of the maintainer has to be devoted also to monitor lifetime of the sensor, i.e. of the fibre. Analogously, they are
the evolution of existing cracks. A-priori detection of new neither indicated to monitor highly active cracks because the
cracks, both by numerical/theoretical prediction and by early concentrated strain between the crack margins reaches many
stage precursors’ localization, is a challenging task. Anisotropy thousands of microstrains in short time, dealing to the fibre
of the material makes unfeasible to model and forecast where breaking.
new cracks will grow with sufficient precision. At the same Recently, to overcome such intrinsic limitation, it has been
time, the marginal effect induced by cracks on the global considered the adoption of polymer optical fibres (POFs),
stiffness of the reinforced concrete structure makes the instead of the standard glass ones [5,6].
detection of precursors and micro cracks way too much
 modulated optical signal. It integrated a commercially
available interrogator and employs standard POFs for sensing.
The sensing principle is not novel and it has been proposed for
other structural health monitoring application, mainly to the
aim of dynamic deformations [9,10]. Nonetheless, its
application to static monitoring of concrete structures is novel,
to our knowledge.

Sensing principle
The device used here to measure the cumulative deformation
of a polymer optical fibre induced by a crack is the Optical
Figure 1: (a) Scheme of the Optical Phase Interrogator®: two Phase Interrogator® (OPI) from AVAGO Technologies
650 nm led diodes are driven by a voltage controlled oscillator. (QFBR-IN001Z), available off-the-shelf in the market.
The system measures the difference in the electrical phase at Interrogator working principle is shown in figure 1(a): it is
the output of two POFs of the same length. One POF is used based on the electrical phase measurement of a sinusoidal
for sensing and the other for reference. (b) POF glued in modulated signal. Please refer to [9,10] for a detail description
meander to the tunnel lining along the crack. An extensometer of the technique.
is also visible in the lower picture. As shown in figure 1(a), the system requires a couple of fibres,
one used for sensing and the other for reference and
Indeed, POFs withstand significantly larger bending and temperature compensation. Indeed, the interrogator, by
elongations [7] than standard glass optical fibres. In addition, measuring the electrical phase difference at the end of the two
POFs are compatible with distributed sensing, but with reduced POFs, is not able to separate the phase change due to the strain
spatial and strain resolution [8]. As for standard glass DFOSs, from that due to temperature variation. More in detail,
the cost for distributed sensing based on POFs is still quite temperature may affect the fibre via both the thermo-optic and
high. the thermo-elastic effects [11] and need to be compensated in
static strain measurement, as in this application. Therefore,
About long-term crack monitoring, where wide and long reference and sensing fibre should be kept at the same
cracks exist, it may be sufficient to measure the cumulated temperature during the measurement, with the reference one
strain, all along the crack length. That can be done with a fibre left in strain free condition.
capable of withstanding large deformation, anchored to the
crack margins in many points along the crack length. If Installation of the optical sensing system
properly installed, this system still allows distinguishing
between concrete creeping and cracking because sudden The test site is a road tunnel, 2.2 km long. A wide landslide
release of energy associated to cracks growth, will determine a (lateral block slide) consisting of a sliding rock mass, several
sudden variation of strain to the fibre. millions of cubic meters large, is crossing the tunnel
transversally, threatening the structure [12]. Due to that, tens
In this work, a preliminary feasibility test of such kind system of tension cracks are growing in the concrete lining.
for crack monitoring is presented and discussed. The main aim The most affected section of the tunnel is approximately at 400
is to provide a continuous assessment of the deterioration and meters from one entrance of the tunnel, where is located the
the damage of the structure to support the maintaining rock sliding surface. Among the many cracks, the most evident
authorities’ decision. The system proposed is a low cost optical ones are currently measured by one or more extensometers,
sensing system based on the phase measurement of a RF

Figure 2: Former standard legacy sensors network (above the red dashed line) and optical sensor system (below the red
dashed line), both installed in the road tunnel. For each network nodes it is explicitly indicated if power supply is needed;
also approximate link lengths are reported. Acronyms: PoE, power-over-Ethernet; M2M, machine-to-machine; MMF,
multimode fibre; OPI, Optical Phase Interrogator ®.
used as crackmeters. A total of 24 standard electric crackmeters Accuracy and dynamic range of the sensing system have been
and 4 clinometers are installed. set to approximately 400 μm and ±35 mm, respectively.
Due to the complex cracks dynamics, displacements measured Although the accuracy value is quite large if compared to
by those devices are not uniform. Neither is the displacement typical values of standard glass FOSs, it still fully befits the
measured over the same crack in different point. Also, some requirements for the application targeted here. As mentioned
extensometers are actually missing the crack movement at all, in the introduction, civil structures like the one presented here,
despite the unremitting movements of the slide. with several highly active cracks, are monitored with the aim
A standard datalogger, a couple of media converters, an optical of assessing the risk related to the deterioration of the concrete
cable link and a machine-to-machine modem, schematically lining and to support a timely maintenance action. In this
shown in the upper part of figure 2 (above the red dashed line), respect, the optical sensing system may serve as a warning
constitute the former sensing system, which is running since a system, capable of detecting an increased cracks activity in
couple of years. It is worth noticing that the optical cable link, long-term surveys. Indeed, the measurement of the overall
which covers the distance between the entrance of the tunnel deformation acting on the fibre is indicative of the undergoing
and the closest power enabled tunnel cabinet near the cracking process, spatially cumulated over the length of the
monitored section, was preferred to a more standard Ethernet fibre. Considering the complex process that deals to the crack
cable. That choice allows avoiding signal boosters/repeaters, growth/evolution and the number of fibre sensing sections over
which require local powering along the cable path. the crack, it is unlikely that the cumulative deformation exerted
on the fibre is not affected. Therefore, the case for which this
Lower part of figure 2, below the red dashed line, refers to the system may miss a crack displacement is very unlike to occur.
sensing network that serves the optical sensor. OPI device is Eventually, this system is capable to monitor a large area, at
equipped with power-over-Ethernet (PoE) network interface low cost per crack length monitored: in this first test case, it
and, by means of dedicated media converters, the data from/to has been applied to monitor the activity of one single crack, but
the OPI device has been routed in two fibres of the multimode its application to several cracks is possible.
optical cable link already installed inside the tunnel. Moreover,
thanks to the PoE feature, it was possible to install the OPI Preliminary field measurements
device, 40 meters far away from the power enabled tunnel
cabinet mentioned above and very close to the monitored The system has been installed in December 2014 and it is
crack, without any additional power supply cable. Most currently running. It took approximately one month for the glue
notably, retrofitting of the existing system was possible to harden completely.
without putting the former system out-of-service. Data from an extensometer installed on the same crack
monitored by the optical sensor and visible in the lower picture
About sensing and reference POFs: fibres used here are 1 mm of figure 1(b), have been compared to those from the OPI
polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) fibres, with polyethylene device. As an example, sensors responses are represented in
(PE) jacket with outer diameter of 2.2 mm. Reference and Figure 3 where the red and blue curves correspond respectively
sensing arms are 30 m long, each. The PE jacket strongly to the output of the optical sensor and to the displacement
increases the ruggedness and the chemicals resistance of the measured by the extensometer collected during the initial time.
cable. At the same time, polyethylene is very difficult to bond
using common adhesives. After some preliminary tests, an
acrylic-based, two-part, structural plastic adhesive, 3M®
DP8005 has been chosen for gluing the sensing fibre to the
concrete surface of the tunnel lining. The deployment has been
done following a meandering path, as shown in pictures of
figure 1(b). One single crack has been crossed along its length
by the fibre cable several times. It is worth mentioning that
POFs used here have been chosen among those available in the
market that guarantee no delamination of the PE jacket under
prolonged strain. To limit the strain on the fibre, it has not been
glued for its entire length but only at the meander curves; no
glue has been applied to the cable over the crack, for length of
some centimetres. To assist the deployment and keep the fibre
in place during glue hardening, we used duct tape, still visible
in the pictures. Unfortunately, due to practical constraints
during installation, it was not possible to pre-tensioning the
sensing fibre.
Eventually, the reference POF has been anchored in strain-free Figure 3: Optical sensor response (blue curve) and
condition near the interrogator, for easiness of installation: extensometer output (red curve).
even though it is not the optimal solution, no significant
temperature difference between the two fibres is expected at A correlation between the two traces clearly exists, showing
the monitoring site inside the tunnel. that the optical system is actually sensing a real deformation
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Acknowledgments
“ANAS – Office of Trieste” is acknowledged for logistic
support and for having made electric sensors data available.
L.S. acknowledges also Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di
Padova e Rovigo, under the framework of Project of
Excellence “Riversafe”, for partial financial support.

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