Drop-weight impact and compressive properties of repeatable self-healing carbon fiber reinforced composites

Abstract

Herein, repeated self-healing of impact damage in carbon fiber reinforced composites is successfully achieved by using hollow glass fibers containing self-healing resin and two types of microcapsules (HGFs-Ms). The HGFs-Ms and microcapsules containing hardener were incorporated to fabricate repeatable self-healing carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite laminates (RSH-CFRPs). Low-velocity drop-weight impact tests and compression tests were performed to investigate the impact resistance, energy absorption, residual compressive strength and repeated self-healing performances of the RSH-CFRPs. The results revealed that the energy absorption capacity of the RSH-CFRPs could be repeatedly recovered and the barely visible impact damage (BVID) zone was almost fully healed after every healing process. Moreover, the RSH-CFRPs successfully minimized the reduction in compressive strength after repeated drop-weight impact tests due to their efficient repeated self-healing ability in impact induced damage.