Piezoresistive behaviour of mortars loaded with graphene and carbon fibers for the development of self-sensing composites

In recent years, infrastructures have become of primary importance for society and for the economic development. This led to the introduction of monitoring systems for their protec-tion, and for an eco-friendly saving of resources for their maintenance. In the field of rein-forced concrete, there is a growing interest for the introduction of conductive cement-based composites for monitoring the health of structures through the evaluation of their electronic parameters. In this work, resistivity and piezoresistivity of mortars added with graphene nano-platelets (GNP), and carbon fibers (CF) were evaluated. The variations in electrical resistivity as a function of strain were analyzed under cyclic uniaxial compression of the mortars sam-ples. The results shown a high piezoresistivity behavior of the mortars with an optimal disper-sion of GNP and CF, with a quite reversible relation between fractional change in resistivity (FCR) and compressive strain.