Damage detection of three-dimensional braided composite materials using carbon nanotube thread

Abstract

Structural health monitoring (SHM) takes advantage of the recent advances in structural behavior monitoring to assess the performance of a structure, identifying the damage in the early stage. In this study, a carbon nanotube thread strain sensor was fabricated into a three-dimensional (3D) braided composite preform for the strain sensing of SHM. We present the results of an investigation on a carbon nanotube thread network in 3D composites for damage detection, in which the variation of the electrical resistance of the carbon nanotube thread embedded into 3D composites was recorded. Based on the variation of the electrical resistance, the location and size of damages were estimated by the response surface method, providing an effective solution for the estimation of the location and size of damages in 3D composites.

Keywords

• carbon nanotube thread
• damage detection
• preform of three-dimensional (3d) braided composite materials
• smart structure
• structural health monitoring