The use of rivets for electrical resistance measurement on carbon fibre-reinforced thermoplastics

The use of fibre-reinforced thermoplastics, for example in the aeronautical industry, is increasing rapidly. Therefore, there is an increasing need for in situ monitoring tools, which preferably have limited influence on the behaviour of the material and which are easy to use. Furthermore, in the aeronautical industry composites are very often attached with rivets. In this study, the possibility of the use of rivets as contact electrodes for electrical resistance measurement is explored. The material used is a carbon fibre-reinforced polyphenylene sulphide. First, the set-up used is discussed. Then, static tensile tests on the laminate are performed. The possible influence of an extensometer on the measurements is examined. Furthermore, failure predictability is assessed. It may be concluded that the proposed set-up with the rivets can be used for electrical resistance measurement, with the ability to predict failure, and that the extensometer has a negative influence on the resistance measurement.