Towards the development of novel self-sensing and self-healing methodologies in polymer matrix composites

Abstract

Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are becoming excellent candidates to address significant weight reductions in several industrial sectors such as the aerospace, automotive, naval and renewable energy. The Achilles' heel of advanced FRP composites centers around the poor interlaminar fracture toughness that may lead to undetected damage within the microstructure deteriorating the mechanical performance. The purpose of the present work unfolds in two axes, (i) to develop a novel Non- Destructive Evaluation technique based on Impedance Spectroscopy for the damage assessment of nanomodified FRP composites. This study aims to providing an insight in the damage mechanisms that occur in FRPs during their active lifetime under different loading scenarios (mechanical or environmental loading), (ii) to develop and employ three “tailor-on-demand” self-healing strategies to counterbalance the aforementioned damage mechanisms and restore specific functionalities in the composite. The healing performance of all the adopted self-healing concepts showed remarkable results both at polymer and composite level.