63. Structural Health Monitoring in the Railway Field by Fiber-Optic Sensors

We report the application of a distributed optical fiber sensor based on stimulated Brillouin scattering, as an integrated system for safety monitoring of railway infrastructures. Two different types of applications are reported, in which the fiber acting as the sensor was applied either along a rail track or surface-bonded to a stone arch rail bridge. In both cases, the strain distribution was measured dynamically at a maximum sampling rate of 43 profiles/s and a spatial resolution of 1 m. The reported experiments demonstrate the capability of distributed optical fiber sensors to detect train passage, with captured data allowing to determine train running conditions and the mechanical response of structures to train passage.