The use of carbon nanotubes for damage sensing and structural health monitoring in laminated composites: a review

Abstract

The increasing use of fiber-reinforced plastics (FRPs) in industries such as aerospace, marine, and automotive, has resulted in a necessity to monitor the structural integrity of composite structures and materials. Apart from development of traditional non-destructive testing methods which are performed off-line, there is a growing need to integrate structural health monitoring (SHM) systems within composite structures. An interesting route toward multifunctional composite materials with integrated SHM capabilities is through the introduction of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in fiber-reinforced composites as this provides not only integrated damage sensing capability, but may, at the same time, also lead to some additional mechanical reinforcement. Since the first use of CNTs for damage sensing in composite laminates, a significant number of studies have dealt with this topic, but a systematic understanding on the use of CNTs in FRPs for SHM is still lacking. Furthermore, a significant gap remains between results obtained in the laboratory and industrial applications. This review reports on the progress of this topic so far. The reviewed work had been categorized from model studies on single fiber composites to laminated composites under different loading conditions, as well as the development of reliable damage-sensing systems which could be transferred to real applications.

Filtration effects of graphene nanoplatelets in resin infusion processes: Problems and possible solutions

“…Image J software was used to measure the size of the interply resin rich pockets as well as the space between fibres within a bundle. 6…”

“…Over last few years, fibre-reinforced plastics (FRPs) have been extensively employed in various industries such as aerospace and automotive, replacing traditional metallic materials due to their high specific strength and stiffness. To further explore and utilize FRPs, especially with the aim of improving their relatively weak matrix and interface dominated properties, various nanofillers have been used to create multi-scale nanoengineered composites, including carbon black [1][2][3][4], carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [5][6][7][8][9], and graphene nanofillers [10][11][12].…”

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“…Conductive polymer composites (CPCs) are considered as smart materials that have attracted significant interest from both academia and industry for decades as they combine the merits of plastics and conductive fillers . Their capability of detecting and responding to external stimuli has offered a range of promising applications by performing both sensing (damage, strain, humidity, vapor, degradation, and current‐limiting), and actuating (artificial muscles, and electroactive shape memory) functions. In particular, CPCs are practical choices for pyroresistive applications like self‐regulating heaters, temperature sensors, and safe battery switches, due to their capability of changing electrical resistivity upon heating…”

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