A self-healing thermosetting composite material

Strategies for the repair or replacement of thermosetting composite components are essential for their safe operation in many applications. To achieve this, complex repair strategies are often employed, requiring gross manual intervention. This is appropriate for extensive damage, but for minor damage can prove inefficient and not worthwhile given the damage that the repair process often inflicts on the structure. Therefore, self-repair techniques for composites have been demonstrated by a number of authors. This paper discusses a novel self-repair technique employing a solid-state repair system for a thermosetting resin that has been shown to be capable of recovering between 50% and 70% of its pre-fracture strength after healing. E-glass fibre composites, produced using this resin, demonstrated that a reduction of delamination area and healing of matrix cracking can be achieved in practice. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.