>
Venezuelan migrant influencer who sparked fury with TikTok squatting tips is a fugitive...
Moderna Vaccine Recipients Have Greater Risk Of Developing Chronic Condition: Study
China's Xi Meets With US CEOs, Including Blackstone's Schwarzman...
Dollar Down 20% Since 2020, Biden Blames Greed
Scientists Close To Controlling All Genetic Material On Earth
Doodle to reality: World's 1st nuclear fusion-powered electric propulsion drive
Phase-change concrete melts snow and ice without salt or shovels
You Won't Want To Miss THIS During The Total Solar Eclipse (3D Eclipse Timeline And Viewing Tips
China Room Temperature Superconductor Researcher Had Experiments to Refute Critics
5 video games we wanna smell, now that it's kinda possible with GameScent
Unpowered cargo gliders on tow ropes promise 65% cheaper air freight
Wyoming A Finalist For Factory To Build Portable Micro-Nuclear Plants
High-Speed Railway Progresses Towards 200-mph Dallas-Houston Line
27 Ft-tall 3D-printed Structure Built by New Robot | ICON's Multi-Story Robotic Construction Sys
Whether they're in airplane wings, bridges or other critical structures, cracks can cause catastrophic failure before they're large enough to be noticed by the human eye. A strain-sensing "skin" applied to such objects could help, though, by lighting up when exposed to laser light.
Developed by a team led by Rice University's Bruce Weisman and Satish Nagarajaiah, the skin is actually a barely-visible very thin film. It consists of a bottom layer of carbon nanotubes dispersed within a polymer, and a top transparent protective layer composed of a different type of polymer (carbon nanotubes are basically microscopic rolled-up sheets of graphene, graphene being a one-atom-thick sheet of linked carbon atoms).
As is the case with carbon nanotubes in general, the ones in the skin fluoresce when subjected to laser light. Depending on how much mechanical strain they're under, however, they'll fluoresce at different wavelengths. Therefore, by analyzing the wavelength of the near-infrared light that the nanotubes are emitting, a handheld reader device can ascertain the amount of strain being exerted on any one area of the skin – and thus on the material underlying it.
The skin has been tested on aluminum bars, which were weakened in one spot with a hole or a notch. While those bars initially appeared uniform to the reader, the skin dramatically indicated where the weakened areas were once the bars were placed under tension.