Study on Electrical Resistance Tomography Simulation of Carbon Fiber Smart Layers on Two-Dimensional Curved Surface

Abstract

Based on the piezoresistive function character and the conductivity of carbon fiber smart layer (CFSL), a novel electrical resistance tomography (ERT) system of spherical and cylindrical CFSL has been developed for global health monitoring. Based on the background of the third generation nuclear containment vessel, CFSL is stuck on the surface of the structure, and the effectiveness of the ERT system is verified by virtual experiment. The image reconstruction results show that CFSL on two-dimensional curved surface has good sensing characteristics in the complex strain state. Compared with structural volumetric strain in the monitoring area, it indicates that the high electrical resistance of CFSL is distributed in the high strain area of structures, and the low electrical resistance of CFSL is just distributed in the low strain area of structures. Therefore the resistivity’s distribution of CFSL can reflect qualitatively the structural volumetric strain field.