Electrospun Nanofiber Based Strain Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring

A novel piezoresistive strain sensor technology is demonstrated based on scalable electrospinning of nanofibers (NFs), which is promising for low cost and large area structural health monitoring (SHM). Meshes of metallized core-shell NFs are used for fabrication of thin conductive textiles that demonstrate a high strain gauge factor in excess of 60, due to a disjointing/jointing mechanism of the inter-NF junctions that leads to changes in current paths and the overall resistance of the mesh. Cyclic, dynamic and temperature-dependence tests demonstrate stable and fast response to strain and the potential for this technology for large area, low cost, stable and low voltage strain sensing that helps in reducing cost and complexity of today's real-time SHIM of composite structures.