Surface damage assessment by analysis of electrical resistance changes in graphite-based sensing skin

Abstract

The article presents the method of identifying surface damage by measuring changes in resistance in graphitebased sensing skin. The research focused on analysis of conductivity anomalies caused by surface damage. Sensitivity maps obtained with Finite Element Method (FEM) in conjunction with the analytical damage model were used to build the coating evaluation algorithm. The experiment confirmed the ability of this method to identify a single elliptical-shape damage. Eight electrodes were enough to locate the damage that covered about 0.1‰ of the examined area. The proposed algorithm can prove useful in simple applications for surface condition monitoring. It can be implemented wherever it is possible to apply a thin layer of conductor to a non-conductive surface.

Keywords

• sensing skin
• damage
• detection
• algorithm
• ert