Abstract
A repetitive in-situ healing system for fiber reinforced polymer composite is being developed by incorporating the thermoplastic polycaprolactone (CAPA) healing agent (healent) and shape memory polymer in a thermoset epoxy (SC-780) system. Doublecantilever beam (DCB) specimens with embedded healant were repeatedly fractured and healed by heating above the melting temperature of CAPA (58-60°C). In-situ macro fiber composite (MFC) actuated heating/healing of the fractured specimens was performed by applying a voltage to MFC in the range of 200 to 250 V with 4 kHz excitation frequency for 2 hours to generate 80°C at MFC locations. Heating of the DCB specimens, followed by 24 hours cooling at room temperature yielded as much as 81 % recovery of the virgin interlaminar fracture toughness for different healing cycles, which is close to the maximum healing efficiency (86 %) of conventional oven heating for 2 hours at 80°C. The effect of variation of heating time and other heating parameters are also reported. A parametric study of healing efficiency as a function of heating time showed the effective healing with only twenty minutes of MFC actuated heating was obtained. Scanning electron microscope and optical microscope were also used to qualitatively analyze the fracture surfaces to understand the mechanisms responsible for repetitive self-healing.
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