sensors-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Structural Health Monitoring Using Carbon Nanotube Yarn-Based Sensors

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2019) | Viewed by 9049

Special Issue Editor

Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064, USA
Interests: experimental stress mechanics; polymeric composite materials; carbon nanotube fibers; integrated and distributed structural health monitoring in composite materials; piezoresistive sensors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Carbon nanotube (CNT) threads are piezoresistive continuous structures composed of several thousand carbon nanotubes in their cross sections that can be twisted, densified and further tailored to serve as sensors for structural health monitoring. Due to their microscale dimensions, they are amenable to integration in materials, and especially in fiber reinforced composite materials. The proofs of concept to detect damage and measure distributed strain in laminated polymeric composite materials using integrated CNT yarns are already available. Additional concepts of standalone or integrated piezoresistive strain gauges and other sensing mechanisms to monitor temperature are also being explored for the CNT yarns. This Special Issue focuses on papers that include experimental, modeling or theoretical studies about the fabrication and characterization of CNT yarns and their use as sensors to monitor the health of structures or sensing in aerospace, mechanical, civil or biomedical applications. Of special interest are studies on the piezoresistive response of the CNT yarns and the effect of their structure, geometry and loading parameters on that response. The main sensing mechanisms of the CNT yarns are based on their piezoresistive response but piezoimpedance or other mechanisms that may be tapped for temperature sensing are also of interest. The papers of this Special Issue may contribute to realize integrated, distributed and real-time sensing using CNT yarns and lead to robust and simple health monitoring techniques and maintenance of structures or devices.

Prof. Dr. Jandro L. Abot
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • carbon nanotube yarns or fibers
  • structural health monitoring
  • damage detection
  • strain measurement
  • integrated sensors

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

15 pages, 4949 KiB  
Article
Foil Strain Gauges Using Piezoresistive Carbon Nanotube Yarn: Fabrication and Calibration
by Jandro L. Abot, Mário R. Góngora-Rubio, Jude C. Anike, César Y. Kiyono, Luis A. M. Mello, Valtemar F. Cardoso, Reinaldo L. S. Rosa, Derek A. Kuebler, Grace E. Brodeur, Amani H. Alotaibi, Marisa P. Coene, Lauren M. Coene, Elizabeth Jean, Rafael C. Santiago, Francisco H. A. Oliveira, Ricardo Rangel, Gilles P. Thomas, Kalayu Belay, Luciana W. Da Silva, Rafael T. Moura, Antonio C. Seabra and Emílio C. N. Silvaadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Sensors 2018, 18(2), 464; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020464 - 05 Feb 2018
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 8189
Abstract
Carbon nanotube yarns are micron-scale fibers comprised by tens of thousands of carbon nanotubes in their cross section and exhibiting piezoresistive characteristics that can be tapped to sense strain. This paper presents the details of novel foil strain gauge sensor configurations comprising carbon [...] Read more.
Carbon nanotube yarns are micron-scale fibers comprised by tens of thousands of carbon nanotubes in their cross section and exhibiting piezoresistive characteristics that can be tapped to sense strain. This paper presents the details of novel foil strain gauge sensor configurations comprising carbon nanotube yarn as the piezoresistive sensing element. The foil strain gauge sensors are designed using the results of parametric studies that maximize the sensitivity of the sensors to mechanical loading. The fabrication details of the strain gauge sensors that exhibit the highest sensitivity, based on the modeling results, are described including the materials and procedures used in the first prototypes. Details of the calibration of the foil strain gauge sensors are also provided and discussed in the context of their electromechanical characterization when bonded to metallic specimens. This characterization included studying their response under monotonic and cyclic mechanical loading. It was shown that these foil strain gauge sensors comprising carbon nanotube yarn are sensitive enough to capture strain and can replicate the loading and unloading cycles. It was also observed that the loading rate affects their piezoresistive response and that the gauge factors were all above one order of magnitude higher than those of typical metallic foil strain gauges. Based on these calibration results on the initial sensor configurations, new foil strain gauge configurations will be designed and fabricated, to increase the strain gauge factors even more. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring Using Carbon Nanotube Yarn-Based Sensors)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop