STUDY OF SELF-HEALING ABILITY OF THERMOSETTING POLYMER COMPOSITES, CONTAINING HOLLOW GLASS FIBERS AND MICROCAPSULES USING ULTRASONIC NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING.

This study presents a comparison of the self-healing ability of two types of thermosetting polymer composites based on unsaturated polyester resin as a matrix. The first type contains hollow glass-fiber fabric as a healing agent carrier. In the second type, microcapsules made of urea-formaldehyde condensation, containing a healing agent were introduced. In both cases butanediol diglycidyl ether was used as a healing agent. The kinetics of the healing process of studied polymer composites was estimated via alteration of Young and shear moduli (G') during a time, using ultrasonic defectoscopy. It was found that the healing process of the micro-cracks made in the volume of composites was complete in 5 hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]