At the present state-of-the-art, airport engineers deploy strain and temperature structural health monitoring (SHM) systems to continuously investigate pavement rheological behaviour throughout its service life. Despite the high resolution and accuracy of strain gauges and thermocouples, the high electromagnetic interference, durability issues and disjoint measuring principles pose significant challenges to a long-term pavement SHM system.

Contextually, preliminary fiber optic sensor applications demonstrate promising simultaneous thermal and strain reading capabilities, maintaining good stability throughout time. Therefore, a comprehensive effort is required to establish the measurement reliability of these sensors in current pavement experimental frameworks. In particular, this work aims at validating Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) optic sensors in pavement thermo-mechanical monitoring under static conditions. First, the sensors are tested in a simple supported fiberglass beam under uniformly distributed load and compared with an equivalent finite element model. Then, a scaled concrete plate is instrumented, subjected to simple support bending due to point load testing and later verified against finite element analysis (FEA). Distinctly, the same specimen undergoes positive and negative static thermal loading inside climate chamber, in comparison with concrete analytical thermal expansion and contraction. Finally, FBG sensors embedded in concrete beams are tested under mechanical and thermal conditions against FEA results. In conclusion, FBG sensors provide a feasible alternative to traditional sensing of strain and temperature of rigid pavement, showcasing robust multiplexing and consistent measurements against numerical models at the different experimental scales explored.