Materials Letters 145 (2015) 344–346

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Materials Letters
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matlet

Measuring mortar shrinkage and cracking by pulse pre-pump Brillouin

optical time domain analysis with a single optical fiber
Yi Bao, Weina Meng, Yizheng Chen, Genda Chen n, Kamal Henry Khayat
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, 1401 N. Pine Street, Rolla, MO 65409, USA

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, a new method to measure strain distribution and detect cracking with pulse pre-pump
Received 7 November 2014 Brillouin optical time domain analysis (PPP-BOTDA) is proposed. A mortar cylinder was cast in a
Accepted 29 January 2015 corrugated polyethylene mold with two end plugs and tested according to ASTM C1698 for autogenous
Available online 7 February 2015
shrinkage. It was instrumented with two sensors made of a single optical fiber: one for combined strain
Keywords: and temperature measurement and the other for temperature compensation. The shrinkage-induced
Early-age shrinkage compressive strain was non-uniformly distributed over the sensor length. The average of the distributed
Cracking strain was in excellent agreement with autogenous shrinkage that can be determined from the ASTM
Low water-to-cement ratio mortar test. The location and magnitude of each peak of the distributed strain can be used to detect a
Distributed optical fiber
corresponding invisible hidden crack.
PPP-BOTDA
& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction pre-pump Brillouin optical time domain analysis (PPP-BOTDA).

Cementitious mortar mixtures proportioned with low water-
to-cementitious materials ratio (w/cm) develop not only high
strength and stiffness but also significant early-age shrinkage [1].
Shrinkage-induced cracks in reinforced concrete structures [2] can
increase the ingress of water and chloride ions that can lead to
corrosion of the steel reinforcement, resulting in accelerated
structural degradation, particularly in maritime environment [3].
A number of nondestructive testing and evaluation techniques
have been developed to investigate early-age shrinkage behavior
in cement-based materials [2]. For example, ultrasonic wave (UW)
was applied to determine the setting time by relating compressive
or shear wave velocity to increasing mortar stiffness [4]. Acoustic
emission (AE) was used to determine autogenous shrinkage of
cement paste [5] and detect cracking in concrete [6]. Vibrating
wire gages were employed to measure shrinkage in concrete [7].
Fiber Bragg gratings sensors were also employed to investigate
shrinkage of mortar with low w/cm at multiple points [8].
None of these techniques can monitor both the distribution of
shrinkage strain and shrinkage-induced cracking in mortar matrix.
In this study, a new method to measure strain induced by early-
age shrinkage of mortar is developed and validated with standard
ASTM tests. Two distributed sensors made of a single optical fiber
are embedded in a mortar specimen and interrogated with pulse
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 1 57 33414462.
E-mail address: gchen@mst.edu (G. Chen).
The technique enables the localization of cracks induced by
shrinkage and the determination of crack opening from the
distribution of measured strains.
2. Working principle of PPP-BOTDA
An ultraviolet coated single mode optical fiber consists of
8.2 μm-diameter core, 125 μm-diameter cladding, soft 190 μm-
diameter inner coating, and stiff 242 μm-diameter outer coating.
Light travels in the fiber core with total internal reflections at the
core-cladding interface.
PPP-BOTDA represents the interaction of light wave from a
pump laser with the acoustic wave associated with the density
non-uniformity of an optical fiber [9], which is stimulated by a
probe laser. The pump laser sends a pre-pump long-duration
pulse, which is immediately followed by a measurement short-
duration pulse at one end of the optical fiber. The probe laser
sends a continuous wave at the other end of the optical fiber. The
PPP-BOTDA measures the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS)
spectrum as the pump and probe light waves propagate towards
each other from the two ends of an optical fiber; the spectrum
reaches its peak when the difference in frequency of the two
waves matches with that of the Brillouin frequency of the fiber.
With respect to a calibrated Brillouin frequency under strain and
temperature references, the shift in the Brillouin frequency due to
applied strain and temperature can be measured and linearly
related to the applied effects. Given the temperature change

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2015.01.140
0167-577X/& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 Y. Bao et al. / Materials Letters 145 (2015) 344–346
during each test, the strain distribution in the optical fiber can be
directly evaluated.
3. Experimental setup
A standard mortar specimen was prepared and tested at room
temperature (22 71 1C) according to ASTM C1698. Mortar was cast
inside a 380 mm long corrugated cylinder with a groove diameter
of 20 mm and a ridge diameter of 25 mm. As shown in Fig. 1, the
cylinder was cast in a 380 mm long corrugated polyethylene
(transparent) mold with two 20 mm long specially shaped end
plugs (20 mm in diameter). The plastic tube was retained, and the
mortar was considered sealed and used to measure autogenous
shrinkage. The specimen was air cured at 60 73% relative humid-
ity and 22 71 1C. The initial and final setting times were deter-
mined by the Vicat Needle test according to ASTM C191.
The mortar tested in this study corresponds to an ultra-high
performance mixture that exhibits high autogenous shrinkage. The
water/binder/sand mixture design of the mortar was set to be 0.2/
1.0/1.0, by mass. The binder consisted of 40% Type III cement and
60% Class C fly ash, by volume. To improve workability, a super-
plasticizer corresponding to 1.2% of binder mass was incorporated.
The specimen was instrumented with two parallel optical fiber
sensors that were closely deployed approximately 1 mm inside the
specimen surface. One sensor was directly bonded to the mortar to
measure the combined effect of strain and temperature. The other
was placed inside a 450 mm long steel tube with inner and outer
diameters of 0.5 and 1.0 mm, respectively, to measure temperature
only; this enabled the separation of temperature from combined
strain and temperature effect of the first measurement. To simplify
the measurement process, two sensors were connected in series so
Fig. 1. Illustration of the sealed specimen (unit: mm).
Fig. 2. Sensor deployment and interface with mortar: (a) instrumentation with two
sensors made of a single optical fiber, and (b) longitudinal section with adequate
encapsulation of the sensor.
345
that one measurement was sufficient to evaluate both temperature
and strain along the length of the embedded optical fiber. The fiber
was looped with a minimum diameter of 40 mm so that the light
loss can be negligible.
To protect them from damage during mortar casting, the two
optical fiber sensors were placed inside a 450 mm long aluminum
tube with inner and outer diameters of 3 and 4 mm, respectively,
as illustrated in Fig. 2(a). Prior to mortar casting, the aluminum
tube was passed through a 5 mm-diameter hole drilled on each
end of the plug of the corrugated mold. Approximately 5 min after
mortar casting, the aluminum tube was gently removed leaving
the optical fiber sensor in direct contact with freshly cast mortar
that was still plastic enough to encapsulate the sensor. This
process proved efficient to embed the optical fiber sensors [8].
No air pocket was observed near the sensor surface, as shown in
Fig. 2(b) from the post-test forensic study.
4. Results and discussion
It was observed during casting that the 0.2 w/cm mortar was
highly flowable yet stable with no bleeding or segregation. The
initial and final setting times determined by the Vicat Needle test
were 75 and 300 min, respectively.
At various curing times, up to 14 days, the SBS along the length
of each optical fiber was measured by a Neubrescope (Model:
NBX-7020). The Brillouin frequency shift due to strain effect alone
was evaluated by subtracting the temperature effect from the
combined effect of strain and temperature. For comparison and
Fig. 3. Shrinkage test results: (a) strain distributions measured by optical fiber
sensors at different ages, and (b) average strain comparison with ASTM method.
346 Y. Bao et al. / Materials Letters 145 (2015) 344–346
validation, the ASTM standard test for shrinkage measurement
was conducted.
Fig. 3(a) shows the strain distribution along the embedded
optical fiber after 1, 3, 7, and 14 days of curing. The horizontal axis
represents the distance of optical fiber measured from its connec-
tion to the Neubrescope. The portion of optical fiber in direct
contact with mortar is specified in Fig. 3(a). The strain measured
along the specimen length was negative and not uniform, indicating
non-uniform compressive strain due to shrinkage. For convenience,
shrinkage strain (positive) is referred to the absolute value of
measured strain (negative). Shrinkage strain at 2.87–2.99 m along
fiber length are consistently larger than those at 3.03–3.23 m; the
minimum value occurred at 2.99–3.03 m, as marked between the
two vertical lines in Fig. 3(a), where a shrinkage induced crack was
observed at the surface of the specimen. Each strain peak corre-
sponded to crack location. The release of shrinkage strain near the
crack was small and slightly increased over time; the crack affected
zones bounded by the two vertical lines at various ages were nearly
identical. Observations from Fig. 3(a) indicate that the crack was
small and slightly widening over time, and that the optical fiber
remained bonded to the mortar.
As shown in Fig. 3(b), the average value of each strain distribution
is in excellent agreement with the corresponding strain measured by
ASTM C1698. Each error bar in Fig. 3(b) shows the maximum and
minimum strain values at different curing ages. The shrinkage strain
increased rapidly at the beginning of curing and became stable after
approximately 7 days.
5. Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn from this study:
(1) The average shrinkage measurements with the proposed fiber
optic sensors are in excellent agreement with standard test
measurements of early-age autogenous shrinkage in cement-
based materials.
(2) The proposed sensors enable the determination of strain dis-
tribution over the length of a mortar specimen based on one
measurement with a single optical fiber.
(3) Shrinkage-induced cracks can be located at the center of peaks
on the strain distribution. Their opening can be related to the
magnitude of the strain peaks.
Future work is directed to quantify the potential effect of material
content, w/cm, and material fluidity on the quality of measured data
with multiple test specimens.
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