Electrical response of a laminate with a delamination: modelling and experiments

An analytical and experimental study is carried out on the electrical response of a laminate with a delamination. The present study represents a basis for the detection of delaminations in conductive laminates through electrical measurements. As an example of application, the case of a Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) specimen is considered, with the aim to calculate the electric potential of a point on the surface of the laminate, and its variation as a function of the delamination length, highlighting the most influencing parameters. The accuracy of the theoretical predictions is verified against a number of finite element analyses, showing an extremely satisfactory agreement. In addition to this, theoretical predictions are also validated by comparison with a bulk of experimental data coming from an ad-hoc campaign, as well as using data taken from the literature. In all cases a good agreement is found. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.