Experimental and numerical investigations on the mechanical characteristics of carbon fiber sensors

Salem Bashmal*, Mohammed Siddiqui, Abul Fazal M. Arif

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Carbon fiber-based materials possess excellent mechanical properties and show linear piezoresistive behavior, which make them good candidate materials for strain measurements. They have the potential to be used as sensors for various applications such as damage detection, stress analysis and monitoring of manufacturing processes and quality. In this paper, carbon fiber sensors are prepared to perform reliable strain measurements. Both experimental and computational studies were carried out on commercially available carbon fibers in order to understand the response of the carbon fiber sensors due to changes in the axial strain. Effects of parameters such as diameter, length, and epoxy-hardener ratio are discussed. The developed numerical model was calibrated using laboratory-based experimental data. The results of the current study show that sensors with shorter lengths have relatively better sensitivity. This is due to the fact short fibers have low initial resistance, which will increase the change of resistance over initial resistance. Carbon fibers with low number of filaments exhibit linear behavior while nonlinear behavior due to transverse resistance is significant in fibers with large number of filaments. This study will allow researchers to predict the behavior of the carbon fiber sensor in real life and it will serve as a basis for designing carbon fiber sensors to be used in different applications.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2026
JournalSensors
Volume17
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 4 Sep 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • Carbon fibers
  • Composite materials
  • Health monitoring
  • Piezoresistive materials
  • Strain measurements

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Instrumentation
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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