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Conductivity of CFRP as a tool for

health and usage monitoring

Schueler, Ruediger, Joshi, Shiv, Schulte, Karl

Ruediger Schueler, Shiv P. Joshi, Karl Schulte, "Conductivity of CFRP as a

tool for health and usage monitoring," Proc. SPIE 3041, Smart Structures and
Materials 1997: Smart Structures and Integrated Systems, (6 June 1997);
doi: 10.1117/12.275720

Event: Smart Structures and Materials '97, 1997, San Diego, CA, United
States

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 Conductivity of CFRP as a tool for health and usage monitoring
Ruediger Schuelera, Shiv P. JOShla, Karl Schulte"
aUniversi ofTexas at Arlington, Dep. Aerospace Eng., Box 19023, Arlington, TX 76019
bTi1 University of Hamburg-Harburg, Polymer & Composites, D-21071 Hamburg

ABSTRACT

Carbon fibers used in advanced composite structures are piezoresistive. These fibers are inherently sensors because of this property.
Therefore, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites can be considered a self-monitoring material without any need for
additional sensing elements. However for this to become reality the conductivity map of the entire structure need to be constructed
and relationship between the conductivity and various usage and damage related variables need to be established. Experimental results
are given to demonstrate that internal damage, such as fiber fracture and delamination, decreases the conductivity of the composite
laminates. In general the information about the damage size and position can be obtained by utilizing Electrical Impedance
Tomography (BIT). But the traditional BIT is not capable of extracting this information when the medium possesses highly
anisotropic electrical conductivity. Above a certain level of anisotropy it is advantageous to modify the traditional EIT. This paper
presents preliminary results from the modified BIT applied to highly orthotropic (unidirectional) CFRP. These results indicate that a
practical BIT has a potential ofbeing a cost effective Health and Usage Monitoring Technique (HUMT) for CFRPs.

Key words: Health monitoring, electrical conductivity, CFRP, electrical impedance tomography, non-destructive testing

1. INTRODUCTION
Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) consist of electrically conductive carbon fibers and a polymeric matrix, which is an
insulator. The carbon fibers are responsible for both the strength and the conductivity ofthe composite material. Thus the stiffness and
strength as well as the conductivity is much higher in fiber direction than in transverse direction. Many investigators have suggested
optical fibers and other sensors as smart sensing constituents for health and usage monitoring of CFRP laminates. Instead of
introducing additional devices into the laminate, our approach suggest that the load carrying carbon fibers themselves be utilized for
self-monitoring of the CFRP laminates. It is possible to extract the stress/strain field as well as the damage state by mapping the
specimen electrical resistivity (or impedance) information.

Voltage U1 L2

Current

Fig. 1 : Experimental setup of EIT applied to a quadratic specimen using the adjacent data collection strategy.

SPIE Vol. 3041 • 0277-786X/97/$10.00 417

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 The EIT-method gained wide recognition in the 1920's by geophysicists who placed arrays ofelectrodes into the ground. By injecting
current through pairs of electrodes and measuring the resulting voltage reply at all others, information about oil-bearing rocks under
the surface could be acquired. In our case we want to determine the resistivity distribution of a laminate sheet. A possible
experimental setup is shown in Figure 1 . Various electrodes are connected to the edges of the sample. An electrical current is injected
via two electrodes and the potential difference between all other neighboring electrodes is measured. By taking various combinations
of current injecting electrodes and repeating the potential difference measurements at the remaining electrodes, a wealth of
information can be obtained. This information can be utilized to extract resistivity distribution inside the sample using a
reconstruction algorithm based on fundamental electrodynamic equations.

Once refmed, the BIT has practical applications in monitoring CFRP laminated structures. The technological and manufacturing
hurdles do not appear to be barrier in implementation ofthe technique. For example, by placing electrodes at a one mm spacing along
grid lines on a array of size 50 mm by 50 mm, a detectable damage size is about 5 mm. See Figure 2. In existing laminated composite
structures which are often joined together by metal rivets, these rivets can be used as electrodes to measure the resistivity distribution
inside a structure. In these structures, the inter rivet distance is typically 1" to 2". From this riveting configuration one could expect to
detect a damage of size 1", if damage is near the rivets.

50 mm

1mm
Fig. 2: Proposed application of BIT to monitor CFRP laminated structures. Sensing electrodes are placed inside the laminate along
grid lines on a array of size 50 mm by 50 mm.

2. CONDUCTIVITY AND DAMAGE IN CFRP

2.1 Electrical properties of CFRP

For the most part the conductivity paths follow individual carbon fibers, since fibers are surrounded by insulating polymer. Only at
inter-fiber contact points the current can switch to an adjacent fiber. The electrical resistance of the specimen is an assemblage of the
resistance of all fibers. Due to its internal structure, electrical properties of CFRP are anisotropic. This is especially true for
unidirectional laminates. In fiber direction (0°-direction) the conductivity of the composite is dominated by the single fiber
conductivity and the fiber volume fraction and can be calculated by the rule of mixtures. Perpendicular to the fibers (90°-direction)
the conductivity is relatively small. Here the current transport depends on the existence and number of inter-fiber contact points. This
number is related with the fiber volume fraction via a percolation process, the waviness of fibers and fiber bundles and the amount of
misaligned fibers in an nominal unidirectional laminate. Because of the variation in manufacturing procedures, many different values
have been reported. A few ofthem are reported in Table 1.

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 As can be seen, there is a huge anisotropy in the electrical resistivity of CFRP. In literature, p900/poo electrical resistivity ratio of 50 to
about 500 are found. Our own measurements on AS4/3501-6 yielded an even higher value of 2000. As will be shown later, this high
anisotropy makes the applicability of the traditional experimental BIT-setup very difficult.

Table 1: Resistivity of CFRP.

Material Fiber cont. po EQcmi P90° IQcmI P900/P00 Ref.

Carbon/epoxy 55 vol% 0.08 0.4 50 Prakash & Owsten'

Carbon/epoxy 65 vol% 0.0025 1 400 Lodge2

Carbon/epoxy - 0.002 1 0.95 450 ERA3

Graphite/epoxy - 0.0625 40 640 Scruggs & Gadja4

AS4/3501-6 - 0.003 6 2000 own measurements

2.2 Experiments
The experiments demonstrating the basic aspects are shown in this section. The stress-strain and the electrical resistance-strain curve
of a unidirectional laminate is shown in Figure 3. The electrical resistance increases first smoothly with increasing strain. This
increase is due to the strain of individual carbon fibers, which causes an increase in fiber resistance.5 After about 1 .25% strain the
resistance rises in a stepwise manner. Each of these steps can be associated with the breakage of fiber bundles, resulting in the
destruction of conductivity paths.

Fig. 3 : Stress-strain and electrical resistance-strain curve of a unidirectional laminate, T800/5245c, [05], under static load.

Beside strain and fiber breakage, the electrical resistance is also sensitive towards delamination. In Figure 4, the result of a tensile test
of a specially prepared specimen is shown. To enforce delamination the center ply of the unidirectional specimen was cut. As can be
seen the proceeding delamination causes a plateau in the stress-strain curve and a steep increase in resistance. Both changes are an
effect of ply separation, leading to a reduced load and current transfer between the center ply and the adjacent plies. In turn, resulting
in a reduced load and current-carrying ability ofthe cut center ply.

These experiments prove that the electrical resistivity is a viable manifestation of damage in CFRP. A natural expansion of this
method is the determination of damage class, e.g. fiber breakage or delamination, and damage size and position. However additional

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 information is needed to quantify these aspects. A promising method for the evaluation of at least the damage size and position is the
Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT).
I ouuioc
(05] 3rd ply cut
m
0
U)
U) Delamination
C,
C, MPa
0
1500
0C) U)
U,
a, a,
II-
0 1000
0
C,
1( 500
>C,
0
0.1 0.5 1.0 % 1.5
Strain
Fig. 4: Stress-strain and electricairesistance-strain curve of a unidirectional laminate, T800/5245c, [05], under static load. Center ply
is cut to initiate delamination.

3. ELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE TOMOGRAPhY

There are different strategies for collecting experimental data for EIT. One ofthem is the adjacent strategy, where current injection is
done at two adjacent electrodes (see Figure 1) and the voltage is measured between all other adjacent electrodes. This gives N2
measurements, where N is the number of electrodes, from which N(N-1)12 are independent. The use of the current electrodes is often
omitted due to possible contact resistance at these points which could be a source of an error. This reduces the number of independent
measurements to N(N-3)/2. For 16 electrodes this is equal to 104.

3.1 Fundamental equations

We assume that there are no current sources inside the sample, i.e.:
divj = 0 = div( • grad ) = 0. (la)

—i acJ a(
a( •—I+—Ia
X
j
In a 2-dimensional case and ifthe principle axis ofthe conductivity tensor coincide with coordinate axis this reduces to:
ai
•—i=O
" (ib)

Boundaryconditions:
(
Ic
X j Y)
ai ( •—I=j
•—I+k S (2a)

(2b)

cI : electric potential; c : conductivity; s : current density applied at boundary; I : potential applied at boundary. The governing
equation (1) is a very complicated differential equation and it is impossible to obtain its general analytic solution. Thus, a numerical
method, the fmite element method (FEM), is generally used to derive the solutions.

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 3.2 Reconstruction algorithms
If the conductivity distribution and the boundary conditions s &id are given, the internal potential and current densities can be
obtained straightforward using equation (1) and (2) and a Finite Element Method, FEM-program. This is called a forward problem. In
EIT instead, we measure the potential and current distributions on the electrodes placed at the boundary of a specimen to determine
the internal conductivity distribution. This, so called inverse problem requires many iterative, numerical solutions of a forward
problem.
In FEM, the domain is divided into a fmite number of elements and it is assumed that the conductivity in each element is
homogeneous. Then, the FEM gives a piecewise approximation to the governing equation (1). This way the differential equation is
transformed into a linear system of equation.

Usually EIT is applied to materials with an isotropic conductivity. CFRP has a highly anisotropic conductivity. Therefore, it is
necessary to assign at least two conductivity values to each element. The spatial resolution, i.e. the element size, is determined by the
maximal number of equations which is equal the number of independent measurements. To give an example: with 16 electrodes we
get N(N-3)/2 = 104 independent measurements. Dividing a quadratic specimen in i x i elements give 2xi2 unknown conductivity
values. This yields i 7 which means that each specimen side is divided into 7 sections. Doubling the number of electrodes (N=32)
givesi 15.

Newton-Raphson method:
An often used reconstruction algorithm to solve the inverse problem is the Newton-Raphson method. This iterative method minimizes
the error F between the measured, meas, Ifld estimated potential distribution, Vest(c).

F= (Vest () _ Vme)T (V .
(a) — Vme) (3)

Starting with an initial guess, o' the estimated potential distribution is calculated using FEM. If the error F is more than a criterion
error, the conductivity distribution is altered by Ao which is a function of meas, Vest(Y). fld the derivative Vest(O)' . Again, to obtain
Vest(T)' FEM has to be used. With the improved conductivity distribution the potential distribution and the error are calculated. These
steps are repeated until the convergence criterion is met.

4. APPLICATION OF EIT TO CFRP

In the case of low anisotropy the conventional EIT can be applied to obtain a resistivity distribution of specimen. To do this only a
minor problem has to be solved. Until now only materials with isotropic, i.e. not direction dependent but position dependent,
conductivity are examined using this technique. That means reconstruction algorithm made for the isotropic case has to be expanded
to account for anisotropy.

In practice the accuracy of this method is limited by the experimental resolution of the potential and current. As will be shown later,
this becomes more difficult with increasing p-ratio, since in this case very small voltages have to be resolved beside large peaks. An
arbitrary practical limit for using the traditional EIT-method is an estimated p-ratio of 100. At high p-ratios the traditional data
collection method has to be adjusted. Instead of equidistant electrodes it is advantageous to place the electrodes only along the sides
that are perpendicular to the fiber direction.

4.1 Experimental
Specimens made with one ply of the carbon fiber-prepreg A54/3501-6 were used for experimental investigation. Ply thickness was
measured to be 0.16 mm. Specimens were cut into squares of 52 x 52 mm. To perform the electrical characterization, 16 Razor blades

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 pressed to the specimen edges every 13 mm were used as electrodes (like shown in Figure 5). For the data collection the adjacent
strategy was used. An AC-current of 5 mA (2 kHz) was applied to two adjacent electrodes and the potential differences between all
other adjacent electrodes were recorded with a gain of 10 using an apparatus described elsewhere.6

After testing the intact specimen, a circular hole, 5 mm in diameter, was drilled into the specimen at the desired position. For this the
specimen was temporarily disconnected form the electrodes.

Eiectrode I 2 3 4

0
.
1
:I 2 3 4
.. x

Fig. 5: 2D-Model used for fmite element calculations. Resistivity in transverse direction is 400, resistivity in fiber direction is adjusted
to account for various p-ratios. Damages are modeled by quadratic holes with an edge length of 0.5 cm.

4.2 Numerical simulation

A 2-dimensional, orthotropic sheet with uniform anisotropic conductivity is examined. Its size was chosen to be 4 cm x 4 cm
representing a unidirectional ply. Corresponding to our experimental fmdings of p00= 3x103 cm and P9o= 6 Qcm and a ply
thickness of 0.015 cm, the resistivity in O and 90°-direction were set to 0.2 and 400 respectively, i.e. p-ratio = 2000. To
parametrically study the effect of various p-ratios the resistivity in 0°-direction was increased.

The ANSYS 5.3 program was used for the fmite element calculation. Element type was thermal-electric solid (PLANE 67) with 4
nodes. The global element size was 0.0625 units, so that the edge space between electrodes is divided into 16 elements. The model
shown in Figure 5 includes 16 electrode positions, 1 .0 cm apart along the specimen edges. Damages to the specimen were modeled by
setting the resistivity of different specimen regions to 1020. These region were quadrangular shaped with an edge length of 0.5cm.
The potential at the origin ofthe coordinate system is set to 0 and a current of5x103 A is applied between two adjacent nodes.

4.3 Preliminary results

As mentioned before, a p-ratio up to 2000 was measured in unidirectional CFRP specimen. The effect of such an anisotropy is shown
in Figure 6. Here, the potential distribution is presented when a current of 5 mA is applied between the electrodes 2 and 3 (p-
ratio=500). It can be seen that all equipotential lines are almost parallel to the fiber direction. This means that the potential drop along
the fiber direction is negligible compared to the transverse direction. Thus, resolving the small voltages between, e.g., electrode 5and
6 is very difficult because it is likely to fall within the noise present in the experimental measurements.

Finite element calculations for an intact specimen with a p-ratio of 2000 and experimental results are shown in Figure 7. For various
adjacent current electrode pairs the voltage between all other adjacent electrodes are displayed. As can be seen most measurements are
negligible compared to the few peaks obtained in 90°-direction.

In Figure 8 numerical as well as experimental results for a specimen with a hole in the center (hole 1), at the right side (hole2) and at
the top (hole 3) are shown. Positions of these holes are shown in Figure 5. For clarity, only the difference in potential between the

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 damaged and the intact specimen is presented. In each case only one measurement is significantly different from others. For hole 1
and hole 3 this is, when current is applied between the electrodes 2 and 3 and the voltage is measured between 10 and 1 1. For hole 2
the peak shift to the current electrodes 3-4 and potential electrodes 9-10. These peaks indicate the hole position in 90°direction. Peaks
for hole 1 and 3 reveal that the entire hole is between x=1.5 and x=2.5, whereas the peak for hole 2 shows that entire holeis between
x=2.5 and x=3.5. Using more electrodes with smaller distances the hole position in transverse to the fiber direction could be easily
determined accurately.

TI ::

V = 004 0.10 0 17 0.23 019 0.35 041 0.47

Fig. 6: Calculated potential distribution of a quadratic specimen, when a current of 0.005 A is applied between the electrodes 2 and 3
(see Fig. 5). Resistivity is 0.8 in fiber direction and 400 in transverse direction.

4 4
: .

12
•

:*

a) b)
Fig. 7: a) Finite element calculation for an intact specimen (po=O.2, P9o400 15 mA) b) experimental results for an intact CFRP-
specimen (1=5 mA). (Note that voltages include a gain of 10.)

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 2, by the 1.
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 That means the conductivity decreased by 7%. In fact we reduced the conductive area by the hole size, which is about 6%. As this
rough estimate shows the height ofthe difference peak indicates in fact the conductivity drop.

What left is to determine the hole position in 0°-direction. Since specimens with hole 1 and hole 3 show the same peak no distinction
can be made. The potential difference between electrodes 10 and 1 1 do not provide enough data to calculate the hole position in O
direction and in 90°-direction and the hole size. Additionally, the determination of the potential difference between the electrodes 10
and 11 on a fmer scale is needed. As we seen in Figure 6 most information about the specimen is located between electrode 10-11 and
2-3.

Fig. 9: Calculated difference in the potential curves between specimen with holes at various positions (see Fig. 5) and the intact
specimen. A current of 5 mA is applied between electrode 2 (x=2.5) and 3 (x=3.5). Curves represent the potential difference at
the specimen edge on the electrode and on the opposite side.

Fig. 10: Derivatives positions (see Fig. 5)

and the intact specimen.

In Figure 9 the difference in the potential curve between specimen with holes and the intact specimen is shown. Current was applied
between electrode 2 (x=2.5) and 3 (x=3.5). The differences of these curves are widened in the derivatives of these curves (see Fig.
10). When the hole is in the middle of the specimen, the potential curves which are determined on the current electrode side and on

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 the opposite side are identical. If the hole moves toward the opposite side (hole 4 and 3) the peak decreases on the current electrode
side. Simultaneously the peak on the opposite side increases and form adjacent minima. After obtaining a calibration curve, the exact
hole position can be revealed from these data. Further it can be noticed that the width of the peaks is almost the same as thewidth of
the holes.

Summarizing these preliminary results, it is possible to determine the position and the size of an hole in an conductive sheet with a
large anisotropy (>100). To do this the potential difference between the current electrodes and the electrodes on the opposite side of
the specimen has to be compared. That means a fme array of electrodes have to be applied to the specimen, but only on two sides. In
contrast, in the case of low anisotropy electrodes have to be attached to all specimen edges, but with a larger spacing.

5. CONCLUSION
It was shown that the conductivity of CFRP correlates to the fiber breakage and delamination. Each damage causes a significant
decrease in conductivity. Localization of a damage can be performed with the electrical impedance tomography method. Depending
on the anisotropy of electrodes have to be applied either at all specimen edges or only at two opposing sides but with a smaller
separation. It was shown that the damage position in 90°-direction can be resolved in a direct and very accurate way. In 0°-direction
the position can be determined using a calibration curve. Therefore the conclusion can be drawn that observing the conductivity is a
suitable tool for monitoring the health and performance of CFRP-structures. Having said that, sustained research efforts are needed
before this promising technique can become technologically viable.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank Dr. E.O. Etuke and Dr. R. Bonnecaze, University of Texas at Austin, for obtaining the experimental EIT-
data. Dr. R. Schueler is supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

REFERENCES

1
Prakash, R., Owston, C.N., Eddy-current methodfor the determination oflay-up order in cross-plied cfrp laminates. Composites 7
(1976), pp. 88-92
2
Lodge, K.J., The electrical properties ofjoints in carbon fibre composites. Composites 13 (1982), pp. 305-310

Electrical Research Association, Measurements ofR.F. Properties ofCarbon Fibre Composite Materials (CFC). 1979, No. 33207R/2

Scruggs, L.A., Gadja, W.J., Low frequency conductivity of unidirectional graphite/epoxy composite samples. Proc. IEEE-EMC
Symp., 2.-4. August 1977, Seattle, WA, pp. 396-402

5Owsten, C.N., Electrical properties of single carbon fibres, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 3 (1970), pp. 1615
6
E.O. Etuke, "Impedance spectroscopy for component specificity in tomographic imaging", Ph.D. Thesis, UMIST, Manchester 1994

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