Ricerc@Sapienza

Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) are a relatively new construction material. Their attractive features, such as lightness and durability, are currently paving an attractive way for structural engineering applications. However, since their mechanical properties are strongly influenced by the arrangement of the fibers (which is dictated by the production process), more research is still needed to fully characterize the material and to predict its behavior under different multi-axial actions.

Aim of the present paper is the analysis of the strain along the beam that is equipped with Glass Fibers Reinforced Polymers (GFRP) with an embedded set of optical Fiber Bragg Grating sensors (FBG), in the context of a project to equip with these new structural elements an Italian train bridge. Different problems are attacked, and namely: (i)during the production process [1] it is difficult to locate precisely the FBG along the reinforcement bar, therefore the following question appears: How can we associate the strain measurements to the points along the bar?