An educational review on distributed optic fiber sensing based on Rayleigh backscattering for damage tracking and structural health monitoring

This paper is a review on distributed optic fiber sensing for structural health monitoring applications, with a focus on technologies relying on the Rayleigh backscattering phenomenon. It addresses the basic physical principles which are involved, the implementation and instrumentation of the measurement techniques, as well as recent practical applications, current performance, and remaining challenges. Being written at an elementary level and integrating relevant theoretical and technical details, we hope the document can be useful for researchers and engineers looking for an up-to-date overview on a field which currently undergoes significant development and increasing attractiveness, in particular for damage tracking in complex mechanical structures.