Self-Healing Performance of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Composite Containing Microcapsules under Tensile Load

Abstract

Self-healing is fascinating research due to its distinctiveness in automatically mending the damages. A great deal of work has been done using the self-healing concept in polymers. However, there is limited research on fibre reinforced polymer composites. Adding microcapsules during fabrication of the composites is one of the methods which is capable of carrying out the healing of damage autonomously. This research work takes into account the preparation of fibre reinforced composites with incorporation of two types of microcapsules i.e., healing agent carriers and curing agent carriers in the course of fabrication to mend the damages generated. The work experiments the impact of inclusion of microcapsules on the tensile properties of host composite laminate. Results of tensile tests indicate that a significant amount of tensile strength of the specimens was restored by healing and curing agents present in microcapsules. The healing efficiency was observed as 61.3%. It has also been noted that, the presence of these capsules does not significantly alter the original performance of the laminate as the effect of capsule inclusion on properties of the laminate is negligible.