Novel Structural Health Monitoring Schemes for Glass-Fiber Composites using Nanofillers
Abstract
The objective of the investigation is to explore a new approach for high sensitivity structural health monitoring of continuous glass fiber reinforced polymer composites (GFRPs). Conductive nanofillers were used for tailoring the anisotropic conductivity of GFRP. Carbon nanotubes and carbon blacks were anisotropically networked using dielectrophoretic manipulation during processing. Smaller, low-aspect ratio nanofillers (carbon black) in low concentrations were superior to high-aspect-ratio nanofillers (nanotubes) for electrical tailoring purposes. Networking of carbon black nanoparticles through the thickness increased the detectability of delamination. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) was shown to be able to accurately locate through-hole damage as small as 3.18 mm in diameter as well as impact damage to a GFRP laminate with aligned carbon black. EIT has also been used to locate damage in a carbon nanofiber (CNF) filled epoxy composite. Methods of improving EIT for structural health monitoring of nanocomposites have been investigated. Experimentally, utilizing the conductivity evolution of CNF/epoxy for baseline free damage detection has been explored. Analytically, it has been shown that piezoresistive coupling and nanofiller alignment both enhance the ability of EIT to detect damage.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 31, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA603343
Entities
People
- Charles E. Bakis
- Kon-Well Wang
Organizations
- Pennsylvania State University