Material-Enabled Impact Detection and Damage Localisation System Using Shape Memory Alloy Tufted Composites.

Shape memory alloy (SMA) tufted composites have shown a significant improvement of the mechanical strength, fracture toughness, and delamination resistance of structural joints. This paper investigated the self-sensing functionality of SMA tufted carbon/epoxy composite T-joints to enable in situ strain monitoring for the detection of low-velocity impacts. Indeed, large deformations in the tufted composite due to impacts caused abrupt changes in electrical resistance of SMA filaments, which were used to trigger the detection system.