High elastic polyurethane/carbon nanotube composite laminate for structure health monitoring by gain shifting of antenna sensing element

Abstract

The composite of carbon nanotubes and polyurethane (PU) was prepared by simple filtration technique. The PU nonwoven filtration membrane was prepared by electrospinning. A layer of carbon nanotubes was prepared by vacuum filtration on the surface of PU membrane. The resulting composite was subsequently placed on highly elastic polyurethane substrate. The contribution shows an efficient method of preparing the sensing element for monitoring the state of strain of loaded structures by using highly elastic polyurethane / carbon nanotubes composite. This sensor has been involved as passive antenna with stable resonance frequency of 650 MHz. When it is get deformed in the range from 0 to 3.5% the sensor gain was changing from -39 dB to - 19.45 dB. But if it is get deformed by 15% and again measured strain from 0 to 3.5%, sensor gain was changing from -33 dB to -12.3 dB, which clearly indicates the damage of structure. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.