Effect of Voltage Measurement on the Quantitative Identification of Transverse Cracks by Electrical Measurements

Electrical tomography can be used as a structural health monitoring technique to identify different damage mechanisms in composite laminates. Previous work has established the link between transverse cracking density and mesoscale conductivity of the ply. Through the mesoscale relationship, the conductivity obtained from electrical tomography can be used as a measure of the transverse cracking density. Interpretation of this measure will be accurate provided the assumptions made during homogenization are valid. One main assumption of mesoscale homogenization is that the electric field is in the plane. Here, we test the validity of this assumption for laminates with varying anisotropy ratios and for different distances between the cracked ply and surface that is instrumented with electrodes. We also show the equivalence in electrical response between measurements from cracked laminates and their equivalent mesoscale counterparts. Finally, we propose some general guidelines on the measurement strategy for maximizing the accuracy of transverse cracks identification.