Development and Characterization of Piezoresistive Smart Structural Materials

There is increasing interest in reducing the cost of maintenance and rehabilitation of civil infrastructure by using self-monitoring materials as part or total component in structures. Structure repair and rehabilitation are expensive and time-consuming processes, especially when damage is not discovered before crakes and deformations affect the integrity of the structures. On the other hand, methods used for regular structure health inspection again add to its service costs. Hence, there is interest in developing smart (self-monitoring) materials that provide the structural capability and responding to applied stresses and other flaws. In this study, the use of conductive filler in polymer composites was investigated to develop smart materials. The volumetric electrical resistivity was found to be stress/strain dependent (piezoresistive). The composite systems were optimized and the electromechanical responses were quantified.