An Electronic Textile Embedded Smart Cementitious Composite

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel embedded electronic textile sensor using reduced graphene oxide in cementitious composites, achieving significantly higher pressure sensitivity and durability than previous nano-filler based sensors for structural health monitoring.

Contribution

Introduction of RGO-based e-textile sensors embedded in cementitious matrices that do not require percolation threshold, with high sensitivity and long-term stability.

Findings

Pressure sensitivity of 1.5 MPa-1 achieved

Gauge factor of 2000 demonstrated

Stable performance over 1000 cyclic compression tests

Abstract

Structural health monitoring (SHM) using self-sensing cement-based materials has been reported before, where nano-fillers have been incorporated in cementitious matrices as functional sensing elements. A percolation threshold is always required in order for conductive nano-fillers modified concrete to be useful for SHM. Nonetheless, the best pressure/strain sensitivity results achieved for any self-sensing cementitious matrix are <0.01 MPa-1. In this work, we introduce novel reduced graphene oxide (RGO) based electronic textile (e-textile) embedded in plain and polymer-binder-modified cementitious matrix for SHM applications. As a proof of concept, it was demonstrated that these coated fabric-based sensors can be successfully embedded within the cement-based structures, which are independent of any percolation threshold due to the interconnected fabric inside the host matrix. The piezo-resistive response was measured by applying direct and cyclic compressive loads (0.1 to 3.9 MPa). A pressure sensitivity of 1.5 MPa-1 and an ultra-high gauge factor of 2000 was obtained for the system of the self-sensing cementitious structure with embedded e-textiles. The sensitivity of this new system with embedded e-textile is many orders of magnitude higher than nanoparticle based self-sensing of cementitious composites. The manufactured e-textile sensors showed mechanical stability and functional durability over long-term cyclic compression tests of 1000 cycles.