Measuring Temperature Distribution in Steel-Concrete Composite Slabs Subjected to Fire Using Brillouin Scattering Based Distributed Fiber Optic Sensors

Published

August 7, 2019

Author(s)

Yi Bao, Matthew Hoehler, Christopher M. Smith, Matthew Bundy, Genda Chen

Abstract

This study investigates temperature distributions in steel-concrete composite slabs subjected to fire using distributed fiber optic sensors. Several 1.2 m x 0.9 m composite slabs instrumented with telecommunication-grade single-mode fused silica fibers were fabricated and subjected to fire for over 3 hours. Temperatures were measured at centimeter-scale spatial resolution by means of pulse pre-pumped Brillouin optical time domain analysis. The distributed fiber optic sensors operated at material temperatures higher than 900 C with adequate sensitivity and accuracy to allow structural performance assessment, demonstrating their effective use in structural fire applications. The measured temperature distributions indicate a spatially-varying, fire-induced thermal response in steel-concrete composite slab, which can only be adequately captured using approaches that provide high data point density.

Proceedings Title

9th International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure

Conference Dates

August 4-7, 2019

Conference Location

St. Louis, MO, US

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

Steel-Concrete Composite Slabs, Brillouin optical time domain analysis, Fiber optic sensors, Temperature, Fire, Concrete

Citation

Bao, Y. , Hoehler, M. , Smith, C. , Bundy, M. and Chen, G. (2019), Measuring Temperature Distribution in Steel-Concrete Composite Slabs Subjected to Fire Using Brillouin Scattering Based Distributed Fiber Optic Sensors, 9th International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure, St. Louis, MO, US, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=927367 (Accessed October 2, 2025)