Effect of thermally induced strain on optical fiber sensors embedded in cement-based composites

A critical issue in developing a fiber-optic strain gauge is its codependency on temperature and strain. Any changes in the output of the optical fiber sensor due to its own thermal sensitivity and the thermal expansion of the most material will be misinterpreted as a change in shape-induced strain in the structure. This codependence is often referred to as thermally induced apparent strain or simply apparent strain. In this paper, an analytical model was developed to evaluate the thermally induced strain in fiber optic sensors embedded in cement-based composites. The effects of thermal induced strain on embedded optical fiber were measured with a white-light fiber-optic Michelson sensing interferometer for a number of cement-based host materials.