Thermal route to self-healing composites

Researchers in North Carolina and Houston have created a self-healing composite that is tougher than materials currently used in aircraft wings and turbine blades and can repair itself more than 1,000 times. It is estimated that this self-healing can extend the lifetime of conventional fibre-reinforced composite materials by centuries compared to the current decades-long design-life. “This would significantly drive down the costs and labour associated with replacing damaged composite components and reduce the amount of energy consumed and waste produced by many industrial sectors because they’ll have fewer broken parts to manually inspect, repair or throw away,” says Jason Patrick, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NCSU.