Self repairing Composites for Airplane Components

In self-repairing composites, usually liquid chemicals are contained inside a fiber or bead vessel that is embedded inside the polymer composite matrix or laminate. Damage such as an impact or fatigue microcracking causes the breaking of the vessel, release of internal chemicals into the damage site where they wet the sides of the damage site, react together or with the matrix resin and close or fill the damage thus repairing the composite. This very accurate repair, which occurs whenever and wherever needed, would enable the self-repair of thermoset composite laminates such as airplanes components. Even though the system from Phase I is shown to be feasible, there are areas to refine in system design in order to make a prototype in SBIR Phase II. The drive to a more commercializable product will include more complex and slightly larger specimens made by autoclave and/or vartm which are subjected to simulated conditions of the end use.