A Self-Healing Structure Based on Monolayer Wall-Less Microvascular Network Carriers for Orthotropic Anisotropic Polymer Composites.

Abstract

Due to the anisotropic structure and mechanical properties of composite laminates, internal damage cracks can easily occur. In this study, orthotropic anisotropic glass-fiber-reinforced polymer composites were used as the repair object. Firstly, the anisotropic material was analyzed using the finite element method, the self-healing structural compliance, water head loss, and volume percentage of the microvascular network were taken as the objective functions, and the topology optimization of the microvascular network structure was carried out using non-dominated soring genetic algorithm II. Secondly, the self-healing material with a wall-less microvascular network was prepared via the vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding process and the embedded wire removal method. Finally, the light repair performance was tested using the three-point bending test. The results show that in the case of no intervention for light repair, the average maximum failure load of the self-healing structure after embedding the microvascular network can reach 94.06% of that before embedding; with the introduction of real-time light repair, the average maximum failure load of the self-healing structure with light repair was increased by 4.1% compared with the self-healing structure without light repair. Meanwhile, the second peak load of the light-repaired structure can reach 51.36% of the average maximum failure load, which is 28.56% higher than that of the non-light-repaired structure.