This paper examines damage monitoring for woven graphite/epoxy laminate by means of an electrical resistance change method. The method has been proposed by the authors and successfully applied to cross-ply and quasi-isotropic laminates; the method has yet to be applied to woven laminates. Therefore, a woven graphite/epoxy composite is selected for the target material of the electrical resistance change method to identify the damage. Beam type specimens consisting of woven laminates are the focus of this paper. The influence of a different electrical property of woven laminate upon the electrical resistance change is investigated both analytically and experimentally, and the condition of the electrical contact between the electrode and the specimen is investigated experimentally. For the purpose of identification, the response surface is adopted as a solving method for the inverse problem. As a result, the method shows excellent performance for estimating delamination locations and sizes.

Date Published: 20 March 2006
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 6176, Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring of Aerospace Materials, Composites, and Civil Infrastructure V, 617606 (20 March 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.658294

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6176:
Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring of Aerospace Materials, Composites, and Civil Infrastructure V
Aftab A. Mufti; Andrew L. Gyekenyesi; Peter J. Shull, Editor(s)