Monitoring of impacted aramid-reinforced composites by embedded PVDF acoustic emission sensors

An embedded piezoelectric [poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)] thin film sensors system for acoustic emission (AE) was realized to investigate the possibility of monitoring, in real time, the post-impact damage in aramid woven fabric-reinforced epoxy. The same sensors have been used in a previous work on similar specimens tested in flexure but not previously impacted, with the aim of verifying the suitability of these sensors to be embedded and their ability to detect AE signals under loading. This work is a continuation of the previous one aiming at evaluating the ability of these embedded PVDF sensors to point out the presence of impact damage, issue widely studied in literature. Aramid fibre/epoxy composite specimens with embedded PVDFs, previously impacted at different energies, namely 5, 10 and 15 J, were tested using three-point bending tests. It appeared from mechanical tests that the flexural strength decreased passing from non-impacted specimens to those impacted with the highest energy and that the embedment of PVDFs in the laminates did not markedly affect the structural integrity of the impacted composites. The degree of impact damage, represented by the decrease in mechanical properties, has been correlated with the AE activity by means of a parametric analysis of the AE signals detected during post-impact mechanical tests.