Healing of fatigue crack in epoxy materials with epoxy/mercaptan system via manual infiltration

Abstract

The present work verified the capability of epoxy/mercaptan/tertiary amine system for retarding and/or arresting fatigue cracks in epoxy materials subjected to cyclic loading at room temperature. By using static and dynamic manual infiltration methods, the effects of hydrodynamic pressure crack tip shielding, polymeric wedge and adhesive bonding of the healing agent were revealed. Depending on the applied stress intensity range and the competition between polymerization kinetics of the healing agent and crack growth rate, the above mechanisms exerted different influences on crack retardation under different circumstances. On the whole, the epoxy/mercaptan/tertiary amine system proved to be very effective in obstructing fatigue crack propagation. It formed a promising base for developing self-healing epoxy materials that enable in-situ autonomic rehabilitation of fatigue crack.