A composite-appropriate integration method of thick functional components in fibre-reinforced plastics

摘要

The use of integrated structural health monitoring systems for critical composite parts, such as wind turbine blades, fuselage and wing parts, is an promising approach to guarantee a safe and efficient operational lifetime of such components. Therefore, the integration of thick functional components like sensors, actuators and electronic components is often necessary. An optimal integration of such components should be ensured without material imperfections in the composite structure, i.e. voids and resin rich areas, and failure of the functional components. In this paper, first investigations were undertaken for a basic understanding of the mechanical performance of a fibre reinforced plastic component with integrated functional elements. The influence of different materials and treatment methods for the encapsulation of electronic components was experimentally investigated under static and dynamic loading tests. By means of a parametric finite element model, the effects of an encapsulation and various parameters such as the shape and orientation of the electronic components were examined. Several encapsulation variants were investigated in order to minimise the chance of failure initiations. Based both on experimental and numerical results, a preferred composite integration concept was selected for an electronic board and some first recommendations for an optimal integration were derived.