Soft Elastomeric Capacitive Sensor for Structural Health Monitoring

Racz, Zoltan; Hackney, Eleanor Mae; Wood, David

Abstract

Propagation of fractures due to high stress loads are a common cause of structural failure. This paper describes a thin soft elastomeric capacitor (SEC) sensor which can be adhered to structures to monitor strain fields and detect sub-millimeter deformations and fractures. Alterations in a mechanical structure change the geometry of the skin-like parallel plate capacitor sensor and the resulting capacitance change is measured as a change in the resonant frequency of a relaxation oscillator circuit. The sensor system comprising of the SEC sensor, the oscillator circuit and a microcontroller demonstrated its capability to detect millimeter scale stretches.

Citation

Racz, Z., Hackney, E. M., & Wood, D. (2017). Soft Elastomeric Capacitive Sensor for Structural Health Monitoring. Procedia engineering, 168, 721-724. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.259

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jan 4, 2017
• Publication Date: Jan 4, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 16, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 28, 2017
• Journal: Procedia Engineering
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 168
• Pages: 721-724
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.259