Strain sensing using carbon fiber

Carbon fiber provides strain sensing through change in electrical resistance upon strain. Due to piezoresistivity of various origins, a single carbon fiber in epoxy, an epoxy-matrix composite with short carbon fibers (5.5 vol%), a cement-matrix composite with short carbon fibers (0.2–0.5 vol%), and an epoxy-matrix composite with continuous carbon fibers (58 vol%) are strain sensors with fractional change in resistance per unit strain up to 625. A single bare carbon fiber is not piezoresistive, but just resistive.