Nondestructive Damage Sensitivity for Functionalized Carbon Nanotube and Nanofiber/Epoxy Composites Using Electrical Resistance Measurement and Acoustic Emission

전기저항 측정과 음향방출을 이용한 표면 처리된 탄소 나노튜브와 나노 섬유 강화 에폭시 복합재료의 비파괴적 손상 감지능

Nondestructive damage sensing and mechanical properties for acid-treated carbon nanotube (CNT) and nanofiber (CNF)/epoxy composites were investigated using electro-micromechanical technique and acoustic emission (AE). Carbon black (CB) was used to compare to CNT and CNF. The results were compared to the untreated case. The fracture of carbon fiber was detected by nondestructive acoustic emission (AE) relating to electrical resistivity under double-matrix composites test. Sensing for fiber tension was performed by electro-pullout test under uniform cyclic strain. The sensitivity for fiber damage such as fiber fracture and fiber tension was the highest for CNT/epoxy composites. Reinforcing effect of CNT obtained from apparent modulus measurement was the highest in the same content. For surface treatment case, the damage sensitivity and reinforcing effect were higher than those of the untreated case. The results obtained from sensing fiber damage were correlated with the morphological observation of nano-scale structure using FE-SEM. The information on fiber damage and matrix deformation and reinforcing effect of carbon nanocomposites could be obtained from electrical resistivity measurement as a new concept of nondestructive evaluation.