Structural Health Monitoring of the Scaffolding Dismantling Process of a Long‐Span Steel Box Girder Viaduct Based on BOTDA Technology

In this study, a distributed optical fiber sensing technique based on Brillouin optical time‐domain analysis (BOTDA) is used to construct a complete bridge health monitoring system by continuously laying distributed sensing fiber lines in a steel box girder. The bridge scaffolding dismantling process is monitored to study the variation of the strain distribution. Additionally, a bridge finite element model is built to simulate the bridge scaffolding removed condition, and the strain distribution of the long‐span steel box girder viaduct after scaffolding dismantling is compared with the measured values. This study provides a reference for monitoring the scaffolding dismantling process based on BOTDA technology.