An arbitrary strains carbon nanotube composite piezoresistivity model for finite element integration

Piezoresistive carbon nanotube (CNT) composites can radically enhance structural identification and health monitoring through continuous self-sensing. However, prevailing piezoresistivity models examine only uniaxial strain and are too computationally burdensome to be implemented on a structural scale. This research circumvents these limitations by developing an analytical piezoresistivity model for CNT composites that is adaptable to the finite element formulation enabling the analysis of complicated structures subjected to arbitrary strain. The accuracy of the model is verified by comparison to uniaxial piezoresistivity experiments in existing literature. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4774294]