Monitoring of Low-velocity Impact Damage Initiation of Gr/Ep Panel Using Piezoelectric Thin Film sensor

압전필름센서를 이용한 복합재 평판의 저속충격 손상개시 모니터링

The piezoelectric thin film sensor can be used to interpret variations in structural and material properties, e.g. for structural integrity monitoring and assessment. To illustrate one of this potential benefit, PVDF film sensors are used for monitoring impact damage initiation in Gr/Ep composite panel. Both PVDF film sensors and strain gages are surface mounted to the Gr/Ep specimens. A series of impact test at various impact energy by changing impact mass and height is performed on the instrumented drop weight impact tester. The sensor responses are carefully examined to predict the onset of impact damage such as matrix cracking, delamination, and fiber breakage, etc. Test results show that the particular waveforms of sensor signals implying the damage initiation and development are detected above the damage initiation impact energy. As expected, the PVDF film sensor is found to be more sensitive to impact damage initiation event than the strain gage.