Review and Analysis of Processing Principles and Applications of Self-healing Composite Materials

Abstract

Researchers and industries have showed a great interest on the technology of self-healing composites within the last two decades. Several innovations are reported in the area with particular focus on composites that heal micro to macro level cracks caused by fatigue loading. Polymer to metal foam matrix based self-healing materials are the primary practiced and researched materials. In polymer matrix composites, in particular, fracture propagates due to nano or micro cracks, which may be due to laminar failure by fiber rapture, delamination, matrix rapture, bridging and pullout of fiber that are common causes of composite failure modes to be healed early to sever stage. The other challenge in the applicability of polymer composites for critical structural components of aircrafts like wings and fins is to maintain uniform characteristics throughout the structure and its maintainability, which may be one of the areas for self-healing technology. Among the available techniques, capsule and vascular microencapsulation are commonly practiced. For capsule based system, a mini encapsulated healing agent and solid type chemical catalyst are impeded within the polymer matrix. The self-healing technology opens an opportunity to design and produce autonomous maintained components that are suitable to extend fatigue life of precious part exposed for dynamic loads like robotic arm, airplane and remote control devices. In this paper, the current state-of-art in the field of self-healing technologies reviewed and analyzed. The areas of research gap are identified and discussed for further research direction.