Preparation and Characterization of Hybrid Structured MWCNT/UHMWPE Fiber Sensors for Strain Sensing and Load Bearing of Composite Structures

Abstract

In this study, a hybrid (soft and strong) coaxial structured fiber sensor that has high load carrying capacity and high sensing performance for measuring mechanical strain is prepared by using a dry‐jet wet spinning system and simple dip‐coating method. The strong core of the fiber sensor is made of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene that has highly oriented molecular structure due to a hot‐stretching process to increase the tensile strength. The soft sheath of the fiber sensor is an electrically conductive layer composed of a multilayer structure with varying concentrations of multiwalled carbon nanotubes and polyurethane layers to enhance the sensing performance. A scanning electron microscope is used to investigate the surface morphology of the fiber sensors. Single filament tensile tests are performed to measure the mechanical properties of the fiber sensors. The signal‐to‐noise ratio, strain sensitivity, repeatability, and degree of hysteresis of the fiber sensors are measured during static and dynamic tensile tests to determine the sensing performance. Experimental results confirm that the hybrid structured fiber sensor shows significantly enhanced mechanical properties due to the control of the hot‐stretching process and significantly enhances sensing performances due to the control of the structural configuration of the conductive layers.

Enhancing the Thermal Properties of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene through the Addition of Carbon Nanotubes: A Promising Approach for Total Joint Replacement Applications

“…This trend persists up to the 1.5 wt.% concentration, emphasizing the signi cance of this particular concentration in facilitating improved mechanical properties, as illustrated in Fig. 3 [20][21].…”

Effects of Microwave‐Assisted Cross‐Linking on the Creep Resistance and Sensing Accuracy of a Coaxial‐Structured Fiber Strain Sensor

“…In addition, the temperature during microwave treatment in the distilled water bath was below 115 °C, which is lower than the recrystallization temperature of the UHMWPE fiber. [23] In contrast, when peroxide was used as the immersion solution, the mechanical properties were significantly improved. As shown in Figure S1d, Supporting Information, the maximum temperature during the microwave treatment in a peroxide bath was ≈111 °C.…”

“…Based on our previous work, [23] we successfully enhanced the sensing performance, which includes linearity, gauge factor, and signal-to-noise ratio by using a multi-conductive MWCNT layer. In this work, the same configuration was used for fabricating the fiber sensors.…”

Strain measurements of an aircraft wing using embedded CNT fiber sensor and wireless SHM sensor node

“…The CNT fiber sensor used in this paper consisted of ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene (UHMWPE), polyurethane (PU) coating layer, multi-walled CNT coating with carbon black (CB) coating layer. The CNT fiber sensor was well known for its high tensile strength and elongation ratio, which could enhance the mechanical properties of complex-shaped composite structures [20]. But when the CNT fiber was used as a sensor, conventional CNT fibers have high electrical resistance, which greatly decreases the current and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).…”