PUNCTURE DETECTING BARRIER MATERIALS

摘要

A method and apparatus for continuous real-time monitoring of the integrity of protective barrier materials (10, 50, 60, 70), particularly protective barriers against toxic, radioactive and biologically hazardous materials has been developed. Conductivity, resistivity or capacitance between conductive layers (55, 65) in the multilayer protective materials (10, 50, 60, 70) is measured by using leads (34, 36) connected to electrically conductive layers (55, 65) in the protective barrier material (10, 50, 60, 70). The output of an element (40) which measures the conductivity, resistivity or capacitance significantly changes upon a physical breach of the protective barrier material (10, 50, 60, 70).