Self-healing of low-velocity impact and mode-I delamination damage in polymer composites via microchannels

Microchannels embedded polymer composites were fabricated by resin infusion process using carbon fabric, epoxy resin and hollow glass tubes (HGTs). The effect of a range of low-velocity impact (LVI) and mode-I delamination (M1D) damage on the flexural strength of microchanneled carbon- epoxy composites was studied. A self-healing approach was also employed to recover their lost flexural strength due to these damages. Moreover, influence of LVI, M1D damage and healing on the failure behavior of microchanneled carbon- epoxy composites was also investigated. The results of flexural after impact (FAI) and flexural after delamination (FAD) showed that LVI has more deleterious effect on the flexural strength of carbon- epoxy composites than M1D damage. The loss in flexural strength increased linearly with increase in both impact (by higher impact energies) and delamination damage (by longer delamination lengths). Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) study revealed that self-healing agent (SHA), stored in HGTs placed within carbon- epoxy composites, effectively healed both LVI and M1D damage with excellent healing efficiencies.