Full-Field Damage Monitoring in Architected Lattices Using In situ Electrical Impedance Tomography

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first in situ electrical impedance tomography (EIT) implementation in 3D printed architected lattices, enabling real-time, full-field damage monitoring and spatial localization of fracture events.

Contribution

It introduces a novel in situ EIT technique integrated with architected lattice materials, allowing systematic damage detection and sensitivity control in real-time.

Findings

EIT maps resolve ligament fracture with high temporal resolution.

Localized conductivity loss correlates with fracture sites.

Architectural tunability enhances early damage detection sensitivity.

Abstract

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) enables non-invasive, spatially continuous reconstruction of internal conductivity distributions, providing full field sensing beyond conventional point measurements. Here, we report the first in situ implementation of EIT within a tunable architected lattice materials framework, enabling systematic exploration across a broad lattice design space while achieving real time monitoring of damage evolution, including early stage, prefracture events, in 3D printed multifunctional lattice composites. Lattices are designed via Voronoi based branch trunk branch motifs inspired by 2D wallpaper symmetries and fabricated using CNT infused photocurable resins, with nanoscale filler dispersion confirmed by field emission scanning electron microscopy. Sixteen electrodes distributed along the lattice periphery enable EIT measurements during quasi static tensile loading. Conductivity maps reconstructed using adjacent and across current injection schemes resolve sequential ligament fracture with high temporal resolution, with localised conductivity loss quantitatively coinciding with fracture sites, including regions remote from electrodes. Architectural tunability allows systematic control of EIT imaging sensitivity to early stage damage, while pronounced resistance discontinuities at failure further corroborate spatial localisation; global end to end resistance measurements complement macroscopic stress strain responses. Collectively, these results establish in situ EIT as a scalable, full field sensing modality for architected multifunctional materials, providing an experimentally validated pathway toward autonomous, intelligent materials and data rich material states that can inform digital twin frameworks for structural, biomedical, and energy related applications.