NOVEL NON-DESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION METHOD OF USING EMBEDDED INSULATED CARBON FIBER SENSOR FOR STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING OF CARBON FIBER REINFORCED POLYMER LAYER LAP-BONDED ADDITIVE-MANUFACTURED PLASTIC PARTS

Additive manufacturing (AM) plays an important role in Industry 4.0, being increasingly used for prototyping and producing functional parts in almost all industrial sectors. However, parts produced by AM generally are weaker than parts produced by traditional molding and subtractive manufacturing methods. AM parts also have size limitations inherited from the 3D-printer’s manufacturing limitations. If desired, AM parts can be lap-bonded with carbon fiber tapes/fabric for reinforcement or parts-joining. The insulated carbon fiber sensor (ICFS) correlates its mechanical strain with the electrical resistance change, and in a previous study, has been embedded into carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites as an in-situ, non-destructive evaluation (NDE) sensor to detect the CFRP’s strain and identify early signs of structural health degradation (e.g., delamination) when the ICFS signal is compared with load displacement. In this study, an ICFS is embedded in a CFRP lap-bonded AM plastic part. Three-point-bending tests are applied to the CFRP lap-bonded/reinforced AM part to understand the further strengthening effect to the part by adding the CFRP. The load and displacement are compared with the signal of the embedded ICFS to understand the potential of novel structural health monitoring (SHM) approach of integrating ICFS with CFRP lap-bonded AM plastic parts.