Monitoring of three-dimensional resin flow front using hybrid piezoelectric-fiber sensor network in a liquid composite molding process

Abstract

In this paper, a hybrid piezoelectric-fiber sensor network is developed to monitor the three-dimensional resin flow front of thick composite parts in the vacuum assisted resin infusion (VARI) process. Three different approaches based on non-invasive and integrated piezoelectric lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) sensor network are developed to detect the three-dimensional resin flow front globally. To check the location of the invisible three-dimensional flow front inside the preform, multiple fiber optic sensors are embedded as flow sensors in different layers. The measurements from the piezoelectric and fiber optic sensor networks are then combined as a complement of each other to estimate the three-dimensional resin flow front. The applicability of the proposed hybrid sensor network is investigated on a thick carbon fiber reinforced plastic specimen with three different thicknesses at different locations. Experimental results confirm that the hybrid piezoelectric-fiber sensor network is capable of successfully estimating the three-dimensional flow front in situ and in real-time, achieving smart health monitoring.