Self-healing of composite structures in a space ENVIRONMENT

The use of functional repair components stored inside hollow reinforcing fibres is being considered as a self-repair system for future composite structures. This paper considers the problem of introducing a liquid healing resin, contained within hollow glass storage vessels, within a space environment. The problem of resin outgassing of a commercially available 2-part epoxy resin system and the thermal cycling of the glass storage vessels, and their sealing caps, are discussed. The mechanical property assessment of the baseline hollow fibre laminate, the damaged hollow fibre laminate and the healed hollow fibre laminate is discussed revealed that a self-healed laminate had a residual strength of 87% compared to an undamaged baseline laminate and 100% compared to an undamaged self-healing laminate. This study provides clear evidence that a FRP laminate containing hollow fibre layers can successfully self-heal.