PIEZOELECTRIC TEXTILE FIBRES IN WOVEN CONSTRUCTIONS

This paper presents the manufacturing and characterisation of fully textile woven sensors based on melt-spun piezoelectric bicomponent fibres. The piezoelectric fibres were used as warp in different weave constructions together with three different commercially available conductive yarns as weft. The conductive yarns constitute an electrode for the sensor. The weaving was carried out on an industrial-type weaving machine and the final textile sensors were poled using an in-house constructed device for corona discharge. The results show that the woven textiles function as piezoelectric sensors and generate a voltage in response to strain. The voltage output depends on the weave