Investigation of temperature dependency of electrical resistance changes for structural management of graphite/polymer composite

This article investigates the dependency of electrical resistance on temperature for graphite/polymer composites. The electrical resistance change of a unidirectional laminate is measured with elevated temperature in the fiber, transverse and through-thickness directions. Because of the properties of graphite fibers, the electrical resistance decreases as temperature increases in any direction. The activation energy is calculated from an Arrhenius plot to evaluate the difference among the different directions. The activation energy is the lowest in the fiber direction due to the high electrical conductivity of graphite fibers. Since electric current flows thorough the contacts between neighboring graphite fibers, similar activation energies are required in the transverse and through-thickness directions, indicating transversely isotropic properties. These characteristics will be used to establish the relationship between electrical resistance outputs and structural conditions, and will be eventually applied to an in-service structural management system using addressable conducting network, which is a grid arrangement of conducting lines on a composite panel.