Monitoring and Assessment of Buckling in Slender Members with Varying Lateral Restraint and Thermal Loading Using Distributed Sensing

Buckling of slender members due to gravity loading or thermal effects is influenced by the member’s geometric imperfections, boundary conditions, and intermediate lateral supports. When assessing the capacity of such members, these parameters are often unknown (e.g., the rotational stiffness of end connections in a truss or the lateral support provided by the ties to a rail track), and conservative assumptions must be made resulting in conservative assessments. Distributed fiber optic sensors (DFOS) can potentially be used to determine these parameters with greater accuracy using strain measurements along the length of a member. A series of buckling experiments was conducted on a slender member instrumented with DFOS subjected to axial load with varying levels of lateral restraint or to increasing temperature. The distributed strain data were then used to evaluate the geometric imperfections, boundary conditions, and lateral support stiffness. These inputs were used to create a finite-element model to estimate the ultimate load response of the member using data acquired at service loads.