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Thermochromic Polymer Film Sensors for Detection of Incipient Thermal Damage in Carbon Fiber–Epoxy Composites

Carbon fiber–epoxy composites have become prevalent in the aerospace industry where mechanical properties and light weight are at a premium. The significant non-destructive evaluation challenges of composites require new solutions, especially in detecting early-stage, or incipient, thermal damage. T...

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Autores principales: Toivola, Ryan, Jang, Sei-Hum, Baker, Shawn, Jen, Alex K. -Y., Flinn, Brian D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5981464/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29702598
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18051362
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author Toivola, Ryan
Jang, Sei-Hum
Baker, Shawn
Jen, Alex K. -Y.
Flinn, Brian D.
author_facet Toivola, Ryan
Jang, Sei-Hum
Baker, Shawn
Jen, Alex K. -Y.
Flinn, Brian D.
author_sort Toivola, Ryan
collection PubMed
description Carbon fiber–epoxy composites have become prevalent in the aerospace industry where mechanical properties and light weight are at a premium. The significant non-destructive evaluation challenges of composites require new solutions, especially in detecting early-stage, or incipient, thermal damage. The initial stages of thermal damage are chemical rather than physical, and can cause significant reduction in mechanical properties well before physical damage becomes detectable in ultrasonic testing. Thermochromic fluorescent probe molecules have the potential to sense incipient thermal damage more accurately than traditional inspection methods. We have designed a molecule which transitions from a colorless, non-fluorescent state to a colorful, highly fluorescent state when exposed to temperature–time combinations that can cause damage in composites. Moreover, this molecule can be dispersed in a polymer film and attached to composite parts as a removable sensor. This work presents an evaluation of the sensor performance of this thermochromic film in comparison to ultrasonic C-scan as a method to detect incipient thermal damage in one of the most widely used carbon fiber–epoxy composite systems. Composite samples exposed to varying thermal exposures were used to evaluate the fluorescent thermal sensor films, and the results are compared to the results of ultrasonic imaging and short-beam shear tests for interlaminar shear strength.
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spelling pubmed-59814642018-06-05 Thermochromic Polymer Film Sensors for Detection of Incipient Thermal Damage in Carbon Fiber–Epoxy Composites Toivola, Ryan Jang, Sei-Hum Baker, Shawn Jen, Alex K. -Y. Flinn, Brian D. Sensors (Basel) Article Carbon fiber–epoxy composites have become prevalent in the aerospace industry where mechanical properties and light weight are at a premium. The significant non-destructive evaluation challenges of composites require new solutions, especially in detecting early-stage, or incipient, thermal damage. The initial stages of thermal damage are chemical rather than physical, and can cause significant reduction in mechanical properties well before physical damage becomes detectable in ultrasonic testing. Thermochromic fluorescent probe molecules have the potential to sense incipient thermal damage more accurately than traditional inspection methods. We have designed a molecule which transitions from a colorless, non-fluorescent state to a colorful, highly fluorescent state when exposed to temperature–time combinations that can cause damage in composites. Moreover, this molecule can be dispersed in a polymer film and attached to composite parts as a removable sensor. This work presents an evaluation of the sensor performance of this thermochromic film in comparison to ultrasonic C-scan as a method to detect incipient thermal damage in one of the most widely used carbon fiber–epoxy composite systems. Composite samples exposed to varying thermal exposures were used to evaluate the fluorescent thermal sensor films, and the results are compared to the results of ultrasonic imaging and short-beam shear tests for interlaminar shear strength. MDPI 2018-04-27 /pmc/articles/PMC5981464/ /pubmed/29702598 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18051362 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Toivola, Ryan
Jang, Sei-Hum
Baker, Shawn
Jen, Alex K. -Y.
Flinn, Brian D.
Thermochromic Polymer Film Sensors for Detection of Incipient Thermal Damage in Carbon Fiber–Epoxy Composites
title Thermochromic Polymer Film Sensors for Detection of Incipient Thermal Damage in Carbon Fiber–Epoxy Composites
title_full Thermochromic Polymer Film Sensors for Detection of Incipient Thermal Damage in Carbon Fiber–Epoxy Composites
title_fullStr Thermochromic Polymer Film Sensors for Detection of Incipient Thermal Damage in Carbon Fiber–Epoxy Composites
title_full_unstemmed Thermochromic Polymer Film Sensors for Detection of Incipient Thermal Damage in Carbon Fiber–Epoxy Composites
title_short Thermochromic Polymer Film Sensors for Detection of Incipient Thermal Damage in Carbon Fiber–Epoxy Composites
title_sort thermochromic polymer film sensors for detection of incipient thermal damage in carbon fiber–epoxy composites
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5981464/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29702598
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18051362
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