Experiment study of tensile behavior of self-healing polymer composite under heating cycles

Micro-cracks creation in material’s structures including composites is one of the most common failure reasons of those materials. On the other hand, inspection and maintenance techniques are difficult and expensive. Also in some occasions even if inspections and detection were implemented correctly, the self-healing action is not always possible. Nevertheless, engineers were inspired by self-healing action in biological systems and used this innovation for the healing of different kinds of materials such as composites. In this study, using the self-healing approaches, micro-crack and damage healing of a epoxy-glass fibers composite were under consideration. So one series of hollow glass micro-tubes were used to fabricate self-healing mechanism. These micro-tubes were filled by one self-healing agent which is one two-part resin. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of heating cycles over time is restored in the composite. So consecutive temperature cycles (1, 3 and 5 cycles) in temperature were implemented in the range of 25-70 °C after damage creation in the sample. The results of tension tests show that a 86% healing efficiency can be gained after 7 days almost with 5 cycles of heat in mentioned temperature range only after one day.