Soft structural textiles, or softgoods, are used within the space industry for inflatable habitats, parachutes and decelerator systems. Evaluating the safety and structural integrity of these systems occurs through structural health monitoring systems (SHM), which integrate non-invasive/non-destructive testing methods to detect, diagnose, and locate damage. Strain/load monitoring of these systems is limited while utilizing traditional strain gauges as these gauges are typically stiff, operate at low temperatures, and fail when subjected to high strain that is a result of high loading classifying them as unsuitable for SHM of soft structural textiles. For this work, a capacitance based strain gauge (CSG) was fabricated via aerosol jet printing (AJP) using silver nanoparticle ink on a flexible polymer substrate. Printed strain gauges were then compared to a commercially available high elongation resistance-based strain gauge (HE-RSG) for their ability to monitor strained Kevlar straps having a 26.7 kN (6 klbf) load. Dynamic, static and cyclic loads were used to characterize both types of strain monitoring devices. Printed CSGs demonstrated superior performance for high elongation strain measurements when compared to commonly used HE-RSGs, and were observed to operate with a gauge factor of 5.2 when the electrode arrangement was perpendicular to the direction of strain.

航天工业中使用的软结构纺织品或软商品用于可充气的栖息地，降落伞和减速器系统。评估这些系统的安全性和结构完整性是通过结构健康监测系统（SHM）进行的，该系统集成了非侵入性/非破坏性测试方法以检测，诊断和定位损坏。在使用传统的应变仪时，这些系统的应变/负载监控受到限制，因为这些应变仪通常很硬，在低温下运行，并且由于高负载而导致承受高应变而失败，因此将其分类为不适用于软结构纺织品的SHM 。对于这项工作，通过在柔性聚合物基板上使用银纳米粒子墨水通过气溶胶喷射印刷（AJP）制造了基于电容的应变仪（CSG）。然后将印刷的应变仪与市售的基于高伸长率的应变仪（HE-RSG）进行比较，以了解其监测负载为26.7 kN（6 klbf）的应变凯夫拉带的能力。动态，静态和循环负载用于表征两种类型的应变监测设备。与常用的HE-RSG相比，印刷的CSG在高伸长率应变测量中表现出优异的性能，并且当电极排列垂直于应变方向时，观察到的应变比为5.2。