Delamination Monitoring Analysis of CFRP Structures using Multi-Probe Electrical Method

Abstract

Since a delamination crack is invisible or difficult to detect visually, the delamination causes low reliability of Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced-Polymer (CFRP) for primary structures. To improve the low reliability, smart systems of delamination identifications in-service are desired. Recently, many researchers have employed an Electrical Resistance Change Method (ERCM) to detect the internal damages of CFRP laminates. The ERCM does not require expensive instruments. Author's group has already experimentally investigated the applicability of the ERCM for strain monitoring, delamination crack monitoring and matrix crack monitoring. In the present article, therefore, these results performed in the previous papers are briefly explained. These successful results enable us to monitor a lot of information of the CFRP laminates by means of the electrical resistance changes in many applications, although a lot of electrodes are required to be mounted. To reduce the number of electrodes, a new electrical potential method for the CFRP plate is proposed here, which enables us to reduce the number of electrodes. The present article compared the new method to the method proposed by Anderson. FEM analyses are performed to confirm the applicability of the new method.