Integrative Manufacturing of Textile-Based Sensors for Spatially Resolved Structural Health Monitoring Tasks of Large-Scaled Composite Components

Abstract

For the continuous and non-destructive structural health monitoring (SHM) of fiber reinforced plastics (FRP), a one-step integration of one-or two-dimensional strain sensors based on piezo-resistive carbon filament yarns (CFY) into textile reinforced structures of subsequent FRP components has been realized during textile-technological manufacturing processes. The two-dimensional alignment of the sensor layouts is realized by a special process-integrated warp yarn path manipulation (WPM). With suchlike manufactured semi-finished reinforcement structures, a functional model of a small wind turbine blade in glass-fiber thermoset composite design has been build up. Using the CFYs’ piezo-resistive effect, mechanical strains can be measured and visualized due to a correlative change of the carbon filaments resistance. Performing quasi-static load tests on the blade and additional test specimens, comprehensible results of the electro-mechanical behavior and spatially resolving capacity of different sensor integration lengths have been achieved. The performed tests demonstrate, that global and even local mechanical stresses within complex FRP components can be measured spatially resolved using the approach of textile technologically integrated textile sensors.