Damage Detection and Autonomous Repair System Coordination

Self-repairing structural systems offer potentially extended performance ranges and lifetimes when compared to conventional systems without self-healing capability. Self-healing materials where damage directly initiates a repair response without supervisory coordination have been used for automotive and aeronautical applications for over a century. Integrating sensing and supervisory control technologies with self-healing can further extend the safety and reliability of critical components and structures. Laboratory scale test beds were created to illustrate the benefits of a coupled system. A thermal-healing polymer embedded with resistive heating wires acts as the sensing-healing material. The impedance, capacitance, and resistance between and across heating wires both detect and assess damage. Once damage had been detected, repairs were initiated, monitored through completion and terminated. This proof-of-concept prototype can likely be expanded and improved with alternative sensor options, sensing-healing materials, and system architecture.