Health monitoring of composite single lap joints with highly sensitive MWCNTs film sensors

In this paper, a method with highly sensitive multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) film sensors was put forward to evaluate the health condition of glass fiber-reinforced composite single lap joints in real time. With this method, the single lap joint fracture can be predicted when the resistance change rate reached 1.11% to 5.89% approximately. Meanwhile, for the single lap joints, the reality can be found that the farther distance was from the interface to different layers, the more easily defect might emerge under the force introduced in the interface plane. And the stress in the middle area of the interface for the joint was greater than that in the edge when it was stretched. The results of experiments indicated that the effectiveness of MWCNTs sensors to monitor the health condition of the single lap joints was confirmed.

Automated summary

This paper presents a method to evaluate the health condition of glass fiber-reinforced composite single lap joints in real time using highly sensitive multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) film sensors, and confirms the effectiveness of the method.