Virtual Experimental Studies on Carbon Fiber Smart Materials Resistivity Tomography

Abstract:

With the emergence of large-size complex structures, conventional discrete sensors can’t meet the requirement of structure health monitoring because they can only sense the strain in a single direction. In this paper, based on sensing and covering properties of carbon fiber smart material (CFSM), an idea of a sensitive layer placed on the structure surface was proposed. By setting finite electrodes on the edge of the sensitive layer, the stress field of tested structure is transformed to electric field which is apt to be tested, and with resistivity tomography technology (ERT), field(global) monitoring on civil engineering structure can be realized. To avoid impact resulting from measuring errors caused by misc factors in experiment, CFSM ERT system was utilized in virtual experiments. Virtual Experiments were conducted on ANSYS finite element software aided by its excellent abilities in coupled field analysis. The virtual experiments included two cases: circular plate simply supported at its perimeter under single loading of different values in the center, and circular plate simply supported at its perimeter under multipoint loading in different positions. In the virtual experiments current incentive in adjacent electrodes and voltage measurement in other adjacent electrodes were implemented, and the measured voltage data was transmitted to the ERT system to obtain the contour plot of resistivity distribution. It indicates that for the single loaded CFSM virtual experiment with tensile strain, its resistivity is increased with the load increase. Compared with 1st and 2nd principal strain distribution in structure tested area, resistivity distribution will qualitatively reflect force field of structure. In multipoint loaded CFSM virtual experiment with compress strain, resistivity descends. Compared with 3rd and 2nd principal strain distribution in structure tested area, low resistivity area just locates at area of biggest strain. Based on virtual experiment, efficiency of CFSM ERT system is demonstrated, greatly supporting the consequent practical application.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 79-82)
• Pages: 283-286
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.79-82.283
• Online since: August 2009
• Authors: Ya Wen Dai, Zhuo Qiu Li, Xiao Yu Zhang, Si Rong Zhu
• Keywords: Carbon Fiber Smart Materials, Field Monitoring, Resistivity Tomography, Virtual Experiment

References

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