Design and properties of a sensor network embedded in thin fiber-reinforced composites

So far, embedded sensor networks in composites have mostly been used for structure health monitoring. In contrast to that, in the present work a new stand-alone embedded sensor network for load monitoring of a composite component is presented. Design considerations for the manufacturing of a demonstrator as well as measurement results for cyclic loading are discussed. The presented demonstrator comprises two textile manufactured carbon filament yarn strain sensors for measuring the average bending strain of a large area, embedded capacitive keys for manually controlling the load monitoring process, a sensor ASIC for the processing of the measured data as well as a transponder ASIC with an antenna for the wireless transmission of the measured strains to an external reading station.