Development of Piezoresistive Sensor Yarn to Monitor Local Fabric Elongation

Abstract

The performance of bulletproof vests is mainly based on the energy absorption capacity of the flexible fibrous reinforcements. To understand the in situ behaviour of these textile structures during a ballistic impact, we find the use of sensor yarns integrated into these fibrous reinforcements to be a non-invasive and reliable solution. Measurements of the dynamic deformation of the sensor yarns will provide a new and useful source of information. The design and manufacturing stages of a sensor yarn, made with the same structural yarns of the fabric, are detailed successively. Then, different batches of sensor yarns were designed, and electromechanical tensile tests were performed in quasi-static mode. These experiments provide encouraging results for the measurement of the deformation of a textile structure subject to a dynamic impact.

Keywords

• smart textiles
• sensor yarn
• piezoresistive sensor
• intrinsically conducting polymers (ICP)
• PEDOT/PSS
• high-performance fibre