Towards Fibre Optic Shape Sensing for Geotechnical Model Testing
Towards Fibre Optic Shape Sensing for Geotechnical Model Testing
Fibre optic shape sensing is well established in medical and aerospace applications, yet its adoption in geotechnical engineering remains limited. In physical modelling, accurate measurement of continuous structural shape is critical for advancing understanding of soil-structure interaction, while conventional techniques are typically restricted to discrete measurements or require direct visual access. Fibre optic shape sensing provides a distributed, real-time, and minimally invasive means of reconstructing internal structural shape within the soil mass, with potential applications to tunnels, pipelines, and mooring or anchor lines. This study experimentally investigates Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG)-based shape sensing using single-fibre and multi-fibre sensor configurations. Shape reconstruction is performed by converting distributed strain measurements into curvature and global shape profiles. A cantilever aluminium plate instrumented with a three-fibre sensor is tested under controlled loading to evaluate reconstruction accuracy. The performance of single-fibre and multi-fibre shape sensing algorithms is systematically compared to assess their accuracy, robustness, and applicability. The results demonstrate that FBG-based shape sensing can achieve accurate and reliable shape reconstruction, highlighting its strong potential for use in scaled geotechnical model testing.
Qiru Yang; Yifa Wang; Mahdi Miri Disfani; Xiaomin Xu; Mark Jason Cassidy; Yinghui Tian
11th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ICPMG2026)
Special Session 5: Combination of numerical and physical modelling
https://doi.org/10.53243/ICPMG2026-373