Self-activated healing of delamination damage in woven composites

A study of the healing of delamination damage in woven E-glass/epoxy composites is performed. With the ultimate goal of self-healing in mind, two types of healing processes are studied. In the first a catalyzed monomer is manually injected into the delamination. In the second a self-activated material is created by embedding the catalyst directly into the matrix of the composite, then manually injecting the monomer. Healing efficiencies relative to the virgin fracture toughness of up to 67% are obtained when the catalyzed monomer is injected and about 19% for the self-activated materials. Scanning electron microscopy is used to analyze the fracture surfaces and provide physical evidence of repair. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.