文摘
Characteristics of printed strain sensors (gage factor, ink microstructure, temperature sensitivity, transverse sensitivity and fatigue response, etc.) are explored and compared with standard foil gages in this article. The printed sensors have significantly higher gage factors than standard foil gages and exhibited excellent linearity up to 0.4% strain with fatigue resistance up to 105 strain cycles. However, in order to employ these printed strain sensors in reliable structural health monitoring systems, their temperature and transverse-strain sensitivities need to be improved. In addition, printing consistency with defect-free deposition and line resolution improvements will be further investigated in order to achieve reliable low-cost all-printed wide-area structural state sensing systems for practical applications. To realize a fully integrated strain mapping system, future efforts will also be dedicated to multiplexing electronics on flexible substrates as well as integration of a printed power source and conventional electronic integrated circuitry.
