A Feasibility Study on CNT- and Graphene-aided Structural Health Monitoring of Wind Turbine Blades

Abstract

This paper presents a study on incorporation of hybridized MWCNTS and rGO in fiber-reinforced plastics for structural health monitoring in real time. Carbon nanoparticle that has certain MWCNT to rGO ratio was dispersed in a solvent were uniformly spray-coated on the surfaces of glass fiber fabrics, which were then layed-up and impregnated with an unsaturated polyester resin using vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding(VARTM) to form composite samples. Prior to VARTM process, electrodes were embedded on the sprayed coated glass fiber ply for electrical resistance change monitoring. The composite sample was subjected to cantilever bending and twist test, during which the changes in resistances between various electrode pairs were measured and recorded. Experimental results showed the dependence of resistance change on the deformation. In particular, this research covers hybridized MWCNTS and rGO electrical network on wind turbine blade. Cantilever bending and twist test were demonstrated by simulation program and this paper gives proposal about future application on huge composite part with MWCNT and rGO.