Utilização de fios de nanotubos de carbono como elementos de monitoramento da integridade de estruturas em materiais compósitos

Abstract

The composites materials were created due to the need of lighter and stiffer materials. These kinds of materials have range of applications in engineering such as aerospace, civil, mechanical and others. However these materials can fail and collapse the whole structure due to its interlaminar properties. In order to predict and monitor the properties of a structure, a method called Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has been created and studied. In this paper, one method of SHM will be used, which will use Carbon Nanotubes yarns to identify and locate failures within the structure. The Carbon Nanotubes yarns have a piezoresistive property which makes them very interesting to this kind of study. The composite sample will be tested using a Three Point Bending test and the change in the electrical resistivity of Carbon Nanotube yarns will be evaluated during the test.