Self-Healing Polymer Composites

Over the past decade, many different strategies were developed to introduce selfhealing properties in structural polymer composite materials. Although many of the investigated routes show promising results on an academic scale, the first commercially feasible self-healing structural polymer composite has yet to be developed. The main objective...

Healing of Early Stage Fatigue Damage in Ionomer/Fe₃O₄ Nanoparticle Composites

This work reports on the healing of early stage fatigue damage in ionomer/nano-particulate composites. A series of poly(ethylene-co-methacrylic acid) zinc ionomer/Fe3O4 nanoparticle composites with varying amounts of ionic clusters were developed and subjected to different levels of fatigue loading. The initiated damage was healed upon localized...

The compartmented alginate fibres optimisation for bitumen rejuvenator encapsulation

This article presents development of a novel self-healing technology for asphalt pavements, where asphalt binder rejuvenator is encapsulated within the compartmented alginate fibres. The key objective of the study was to optimise the compartmented alginate fibre design, i.e., maximising amount of rejuvenator encapsulated within the fibre. The...

Non-destructive monitoring of delamination healing of a CFRP composite with a thermoplastic ionomer interlayer

A comparative study is performed on the monitoring of delamination healing in CFRP-ionomer sandwich composites by non-destructive techniques and destructive compression testing. Artificial delaminations of various areal dimensions and nature were introduced during production of the composites. The extent of the delamination and the healing...

Healing of a glass fibre reinforced composite with a disulphide containing organic-inorganic epoxy matrix

We report the development of an intrinsic healing glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite based on a disulphide-containing organic-inorganic thermoset matrix. Thermomechanical experiments showed that the newly developed matrix has a combination of a Young's modulus value in the range of (800–1200 MPa), the ability to multiple...

Reinforcement and healing of asphalt mixtures by rejuvenator encapsulation in alginate compartmented fibres

This paper explores the potential use of compartmented alginate fibres as a new method of incorporating rejuvenators into asphalt pavement mixtures. The compartmented fibres are employed to locally distribute the rejuvenator and to overcome the problems associated with spherical capsules and hollow fibres. The work presents proof of concept of...