Electrical response of carbon nanotube buckypaper sensor subjected to monotonic tension, cycle tension and temperature

Abstract

Fibre reinforced polymer composites are a popular alternative to traditional metal alloys. However, their internally occurring damage modes call for strategies to monitor these structures. Nowadays, carbon nanotube buckypaper is usually used as a sensor to monitor the strain and/or damage of composites subjected to tensile and cyclic fatigue loadings. In this work, this result is achieved by measuring the electrical resistance response of the buckypaper sensor which is co-cured with the composites. The test results show that the buckypaper sensor has a very high strain sensitivity in static tensile test and the strain sensing factor can reach about 64.77; moreover, in the fatigue test, although the temperature decreases the resistance of buckypaper sensor, the rate of resistance change still changes linearly with loading and unloading. These studies indicate that buckypaper sensor has a very good stability and synchronisation for strain monitoring and it can meet the needs for health monitoring of composite structures.