Applications of optical fibre Bragg gratings sensing technology-based smart stay cables

Stay cable is one of the most critical structural components of a bridge. However, it readily suffers from fatigue damage, corrosion damage, and their coupled effects. Thus, health monitoring of stay cables is important for ensuring the integrity and safety of a bridge. A smart stay cable assembled with optical fibre Bragg grating (OFBG) strain and temperature sensors was proposed in this study. To protect the OFBG sensors against breakage in application, the OFBG sensors were first incorporated into a glass-fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bar (GFRP-OFBG bar) when the bar was fabricated. To fabricate cables assembled with OFBG sensors, several GFRP-OFBG bars were inserted into the hollows of steel wires and fixed with the steel wires together at the anchorages of the cable. Therefore, the GFRP-OFBG bars can consistently deform with the steel wires in a cable and the smart stay cable can sense its own strain and temperature through OFBG sensors. The fabrication procedure of the smart stay cable was developed and the self-sensing property of the smart stay cable was calibrated. Finally, the application of the smart stay cables on the Tianjing Yonghe Bridge was demonstrated. The fatigue accumulative damage of the smart stay cables was evaluated based on field monitoring strain.