Integrated sensors for in-service health monitoring of glass resin composites

In application fields where engineering composite parts are used, for examp le in aircraft or railway industries, it is essential to control the damage of the material in service in order to prevent any catastrophic failure . To achieve this goal it is interesting to introduce damage sensors directly , inside the composite materials during their manufacture In this context, the aim of the present work is to develop a smart glass/resin composite bei ng able to follow the in-service damage of industrial parts for a purpose o f preventive maintenance. The damage sensor used is a carbon tow The increa se of its electric resistance, caused by the elongation and then the ruptur e of the carbon fibers during loading of the composite structure, is monito red The results show that carbon tows can be used as resistive damage senso rs providing their characteristics are adapted to the critical strains of t he structure to be monitored. It is important to point out that a calibrati on stage is necessary in or der to effectively, utilize this technology nod that the application field is restricted to non conductive composites.