This thesis reports the research and industry-related works carried out from the development of a fibre-optic strain sensor system for Civil Engineering applications. A sensor system consists of a number of core components, including the sensing element, interrogation/demodulation, multiplexing, signal processing and hardware equipment. In the process of development, a number of issues have been identified and investigated, which resulted in the improvement of the system performance, as well as the proposal of new techniques for the sensor system. First, an improved demodulation technique for a type of sensor, namely the fibre Fizeau interferometer (FFI), is presented. The technique is based on the improvement of the Fourier transform peak detection method, which suffers severely from the poor resolution and accuracy of finding the sensor cavity length. The improvement over the original method has been compared and verified through simulations and experiments. Second, a simultaneous demodulation technique for multiplexed FFI and fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is proposed. Third, a multiplexing technique using amplitude-modulated chirped FBGs and the DWT is proposed. These two proposed techniques have been demonstrated experimentally through strain measurements. The strain resolution, crosstalk and limitations are investigated. In addition, simultaneous quasi-static strain and temperature sensing of different metal plates are performed. Fibre-optic sensors have found numerous applications in different areas. In this thesis, the use of FBG sensors in Civil Engineering applications is demonstrated in four experimental studies, including: (i) long-term measurement of drying shrinkage and creep of structural grade concrete; (ii) simultaneous measurement of shrinkage and temperature of reactive powder concrete (RPC) at early-age; (iii) measurement of coefficients of thermal expansion of cement mortar and RPC; and (iv) field-trial on the strain monitoring of the world?s first RPC road bridge. In addition, the experimental and practical issues of using FBG sensors are considered.

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed March 31, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-36).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 1999. / Adviser: David R. Walt. Submitted to the Dept. of Chemistry. Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2001. / Adviser: Chris Davis. Submitted to the Dept. of Electrical Engineering. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-101). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (M.A. Sc.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, page: 2869. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) in Civil Engineering--University of Maine, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-145).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2008. / Description based on contents viewed Feb. 10, 2009; title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-36).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1993. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [147]-149).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-116). Also available on the Internet.