Monitoring of long-term prestress losses in prestressed concrete structures using fiber optic sensors

This study presents a method for on-site assessment of prestress losses in prestressed concrete structures. The study is motivated by the increased use of prestressed concrete, the importance of prestressing force levels as a parameter, and the lack of formalized methods for its on-site assessment. The proposed method uses strain measurements from long-gauge fiber optic sensors to study strain changes at the centroid of stiffness (i.e. centroid of composite section) of the cross-sections. Its advantages include (1) robustness to operational load on the structure caused by seasonal and daily temperature variations, in addition to loading; (2) rigorous quantification of uncertainties associated with measurements and parameters; and (3) applicability to a wide range of beam-like structures. The application of the method is illustrated through application to measurements collected over a 7-year period from strain sensors embedded in Streicker Bridge, a post-tensioned concrete pedestrian bridge on the Princeton University campus. Application of the method indicates that prestress losses measured by sensors are of comparable magnitude to design estimates, which implies that estimates are not necessarily overly conservative.