• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.157-163
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• 2008

This paper presents a novel fiber optic tiltmeter system for the health monitoring of large-size structures. The system is composed of a sensor head, a light control unit and a signal processing unit. The sensing mechanism of the sensor head is based on a novel integration of the moire fringe phenomenon with fiber optics to achieve a robust performance in addition to its immunity to EM interference, easy ratting, and low cost. In this paper, a prototype of the fiber optic tiltmeter system has been developed successfully. A low-cost light control unit has been developed to drive the system's optic and electronic components. From an experimental test, the fiber optic tiltmeter is proven to be a prospective sensor for the monitoring of the tilting angle of civil structure with a good linearity. Finally, the test also successfully demonstrates the performance and the potential of the novel fiber optic tiltmeter system to monitor the health of civil infrastructures.