Monitoring sandwich structured SiC ceramics integrity with electrical resistance

Sandwich structured ceramic matrix composites can be employed as thermal protection systems in aerospace applications. During re-entry, structures are severely thermo-mechanically loaded and an on-line structural sensing technique could give fundamental information on the structure integrity and thus improve safety. Among the available on line NDE techniques, electrical resistance monitoring (ERM) stands for its simplicity and applicability at high temperatures. This work shows how ERM was able to detect and follow damage in ceramic sandwich cores, under four point bending at ambient temperature.