DETECTION OF MODE I INTERLAMINAR CRACK IN CNF DOPED GFRP LAMINATES USING ELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE TOMOGRAPHY

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is an emerging structural health monitoring tool for self-sensing composites using the piezoresistive effect. This work presented a novel methodology to detect interlaminar crack or delamination developed during mode I loading in carbon nanofillers doped glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites using EIT. DCB specimens were fabricated with 1 wt% carbon nanofillers (CNF) doped GFRP laminates to produce interlaminar crack under mode I loading. The boundary voltage datasets, obtained from electrodes mounted on top and bottom surface of the specimen, were used to solve the EIT inverse problem to get the reconstructed conductivity change map. This methodology demonstrated that interlaminar cracks can be successfully detected using EIT.
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