The integration of novel diagnostics techniques for multi-scale monitoring of large civil infrastructures

In the recent years, structural monitoring of large infrastructures (buildings, dams, bridges) or more generally man-made structures has raised an increased attention due to the growing interest about safety and security issues and risk assessment through early detection. In this framework, aim of the paper is to introduce a new integrated approach which combines two sensing techniques acting on different spatial and temporal scales. The first one is a distributed optic fiber sensor based on the Brillouin scattering phenomenon, which allows a spatially and temporally continuous monitoring of the structure with a "low" spatial resolution (meter). The second technique is based on the use of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), which can provide detailed images of the inner status of the structure (with a spatial resolution less then tens centimetres), but does not allow a temporal continuous monitoring. The paper describes the features of these two techniques and provides experimental results concerning preliminary test cases.