Strain sensing behavior of electrically conductive fibers under large deformation

Electrically conductive fiber/yarn/fabric is one of the promising materials as flexible conductive sensors because of their sensitivity to strain, temperature and humidity. Aiming at developing of effective flexible sensors, this study investigates experimentally the strain sensing behavior of PPy (polypyrrole)-coated Lycra fibers, showing that the electrically resistance of the conductive fibers changes with the deformation of fibers. The variation in electrically resistance is mainly related to the micro-cracks appearing on the fiber surface during deformation. Then, the effects of the characteristic parameters of the micro-cracks are studied statistically by means of image processing functions in MATLAB, and the governing parameters are determined. Based on the results, a model is built to describe the variation of electrical resistance by the parameters of the micro-cracks. The analytical results are compared with the experimental results, showing an acceptable agreement.