Self-Healing Adhesives and Composites for Aerospace Systems

Self-healing composites and adhesives would alleviate longstanding problems in aerospace structures associated with multiple types of damage mechanisms such as mechanical/thermal fatigue, microcracking, and debonding. A composite cryogenic tank based on self-healing technology would prevent leakage by sealing microcracks throughout the lifetime of the tank and enable the use of composites in this critical application with low risk to mission success. In Phase I, the feasibility of self-healing structural composites and adhesives will be demonstrated by incorporating microencapsulated healing agents and chemical catalysts in composite systems and measuring their mechanical performance under a variety of loading conditions. A partnership between CU Aerospace (CUA) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has been formed to pursue the aerospace applications of this new technology. Together, we will demonstrate the technology for laboratory scale mechanical test specimens and quantify healing performance under both static and cyclic fatigue conditions. This technology is critical not only to STSS, ABL, and a variety of other Air Force mission objectives, but is fundamental to all aerospace structural composite applications.