Feasibility of introducing conductive strips on composites for large area structural health monitoring

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to outline the experiments undertaken to study the

feasibility of introducing a conductive strip to act as a sensor for structural health

monitoring in composites. This method could potentially monitor large areas of a

structure in real time. The first phase of experiments involved characterizing the

EPOCYLTM NC E-128-02 resin (E resin) as well as determining the suitability of the

resin for the project. The second phase of experiments involved designing a screen to

print long strips of E resin and silver ink onto the glass fibres. The last phase of

experiments involved testing the panels under simple loading conditions i.e. tensile

test.

The E Resin proved to have a viscosity too low to be suitable for printing on the

cured glass fabric panel. Moreover, it has a very high resistivity that hindered

resistance measurements by the Multimeter. Therefore, the silver ink was selected as

the printing ink. It was found that the resistance was proportional to the strain

experienced by the strip. Using this relationship, we can monitor the health of the

strip by constantly measuring the resistance.