Real-time monitoring of low-velocity impact damage for composite structures with the omnidirection carbon nanotubes’ buckypaper sensors

Abstract

A novel, omnidirectional, nanomaterial-based sensor technology which can provide wide area damage detection of composite structures was proposed in this work. The behaviors of the buckypaper sensors subjected to both tensile and low-velocity impact were investigated. The experimental results showed that the rectangle buckypaper sensor has a large range of sensing coefficients from 21.40 to 35.83 at different directions under tensile. However, the circular buckypaper sensor has a steady sensing coefficient of about 155.63. Thus, the circular buckypaper sensor as a kind of omnidirectional sensor was chosen to monitor the impact damage. The low-velocity impact damage of composite structures is characterized by the gauge factor of omnidirectional buckypaper sensors and the results of C-scanning. Omnidirectional buckypaper sensors’ electrical resistance increases with repeated impact loading; composite structure elastic deformation and damage evolution can be identified from resistance change. Experiment results show that structure monitoring based on the omnidirectional buckypaper sensor not only can detect small barely visible impact damage flaws and the damage evaluation of composite structures subjected to impact but also can determine the location of low-velocity impact damage through the analysis of results. Through comparison with C-scan, the results have preliminarily demonstrated that the omnidirectional carbon nanotubes’ buckypaper sensor can serve as an efficient tool for sensing the evolution of impact damage as well as serve structural health monitoring of composite structures.

Keywords

Composite structures tensile impact omnidirectional buckypaper sensor electrical resistance

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Polimeno

Meo

Detecting barely visible impact damage detection on aircraft composites structures. Compos Struct 2009; 91: 398–402.

Abbasnia

Farsaei

Corrosion detection of reinforced concrete beams with wavelet analysis. Int J Civil Eng 2013; 11: 160–169.

Surre

Sun

Grattan

KT.

Fiber optic strain monitoring for long-term evaluation of a concrete footbridge under extended test conditions. IEEE Sens J 2013; 13: 1036–1043.

Puhui

Zhen

Junyang

A new method for compression after impact strength prediction of composite laminates. J Compos Mater 2002; 36: 589–610.

De Moura

MFSF

Marques

. Prediction of low velocity impact damage in carbon–epoxy laminates. Compos Part A: Appl S 2013; 67: 489–496.

Bolotin

Shchugorev

VN.

Effect of low-velocity impact on the residual strength of composites. Mech Compos Mater 1994; 29: 357–364.

Batra

Gopinath

Zheng

JQ.

Damage and failure in low energy impact of fiber-reinforced polymeric composite laminates. Compos Struct 2012; 94: 540–547.

Kadlec

Růžek

A comparison of laser shearography and C-scan for assessing a glass/epoxy laminate impact damage. Appl Compos Mater 2011; 19: 393–407.

Alcock

Cabrera

Barkoula

et al . Low velocity impact performance of recyclable all-polypropylene composites. Compos Sci Technol 2006; 66: 1724–1737.

10.

Hazizan

Cantwell

WJ.

The low velocity impact response of an aluminium honeycomb sandwich structure. Compos Part B: Eng 2003; 34: 679–687.

11.

Jang

B-W

Kim

C-G.

Real-time detection of low-velocity impact-induced delamination onset in composite laminates for efficient management of structural health. Compos Part B: Eng 2017; 123: 124–135.

12.

Tan

Shee

Yap

et al . Fiber Bragg grating based sensing system: early corrosion detection for structural health monitoring. Sensor Actuat A: Phys 2016; 246: 123–128.

13.

Chen

Wang

et al . Monitoring the glass transition temperature of polymeric composites with carbon nanotube buckypaper sensor. Polym Test 2017; 57: 12–16.

14.

Wang

Tang

JL.

Feasibility of fiber Bragg grating and long-period fiber grating sensors under different environmental conditions. Sensors 2010; 10: 10105–10127.

15.

Cantwell

Morton

Geometrical effects in the low velocity impact response of CFRP. Compos Struct 1989; 12: 39–59.

16.

Djeddi

Khelif

Benmedakhene

et al . Reliability of acoustic emission as a technique to detect corrosion and stress corrosion cracking on prestressing steel strands. Int J Electrochem Sc 2013; 8: 8356–8370.

17.

Chen

Hou

et al . Low-velocity impact response of composite sandwich structures: modelling and experiment. Compos Struct 2017; 168: 322–334.

18.

Kröger

A theoretical evaluation of the effects of carbon nanotube entanglement and bundling on the structural and mechanical properties of buckypaper. Carbon 2012; 50: 1793–1806.

19.

Han

J-H

Zhang

Chen

M-J

et al . CNT buckypaper/thermoplastic polyurethane composites with enhanced stiffness, strength and toughness. Compos Sci Technol 2014; 103: 63–71.

20.

Lopes

van Hattum

Pereira

CMC

et al . High CNT content composites with CNT Buckypaper and epoxy resin matrix: impregnation behaviour composite production and characterization. Compos Struct 2010; 92: 1291–1298.

21.

Liu

Zhou

Enhanced delamination initiation stress and monitoring sensitivity of quasi-isotropic laminates under in-plane tension by interleaving with CNT buckypaper. Compos Part A: Appl S 2016; 89: 10–17.

22.

Cheng

Wang

Jiang

et al . Fabrication and properties of aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube-reinforced epoxy composites. J Mater Res 2011; 23: 2975–2983.

23.

Chen

Wang

et al . Monitoring the manufacturing process of glass fiber reinforced composites with carbon nanotube buckypaper sensor. Polym Test 2016; 52: 79–84.

24.

Nofar

Hoa

Pugh

MD.

Failure detection and monitoring in polymer matrix composites subjected to static and dynamic loads using carbon nanotube networks. Compos Sci Technol 2009; 69: 1599–1606.

25.

Alexopoulos

Bartholome

Poulin

et al . Structural health monitoring of glass fiber reinforced composites using embedded carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers. Compos Sci Technol 2010; 70: 260–271.

26.

Holmen

Olovsson

Børvik

Discrete modeling of low-velocity penetration in sand. Comput Geotech 2017; 86: 21–32.

27.

Swift

Hsiung

Kennedy

et al . Dynamic impact testing of hedgehog spines using a dual-arm crash pendulum. J Mech Behav Biomed 2016; 61: 271–282.

28.

Zhao

Wang

Yang

et al . Tunable piezoresistivity of nanographene films for strain sensing. ACS Nano 2015; 9: 1622–1659.

29.

Zeng

Liu

et al . Ultra-broadband frequency responsive sensor based on lightweight and flexible carbon nanostructured polymeric nanocomposites. Carbon 2017; 121: 490–501.

30.

Boland

Khan

Ryan

et al . Sensitive electromechanical sensors using viscoelastic graphene-polymer nanocomposites. Science 2016; 354: 1257–1260.

31.

Karube

Yan

et al . Tunneling effect in a polymer/carbon nanotube nanocomposite strain sensor. Acta Mater 2008; 56: 2929–2936.

32.

Karube

Arai

et al . Investigation on sensitivity of a polymer/carbon nanotube composite strain sensor. Carbon 2010; 48: 680–687.

33.

Gao

Chou

T-W

Thostenson

et al . In situ sensing of impact damage in epoxy/glass fiber composites using percolating carbon nanotube networks. Carbon 2011; 49: 3382–3385.