Long-term monitoring data motivated structural performance assessment of cement concrete pavement structures built with FBG sensors in field

Rigid pavement structures have complex internal contact conditions and discrete constituent media, so that the structural mechanical response is difficult to be much precisely characterised by analytical methods. To overcome these deficiencies, the in-situ monitoring systems for continuously tracking the mechanical behaviour of pavements has been highly recognised. Therefore, a long-term continuous monitoring system has been constructed by using specially developed fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors embedded in the concrete pavement. The long-term deformation characteristics of rigid pavement structures under vehicle load and environmental effects are tracked. The effectiveness and accuracy of the embedded optical fibre sensors and the configured monitoring system have been demonstrated by comparing the monitoring data with the finite element simulation results. Furthermore, the short-term and long-term strain field distributions of the rigid pavement are investigated based on continuous monitoring data. The long-term monitoring data provide scientific recommendations for preventive maintenance of rigid pavement structures.