Self-Healing Structures
When one thinks of healing, the first example that comes to mind is the body's self-repair of cuts and bruises. When a blood vessel is ruptured, platelets come together to form a clot that stops the bleeding. The process of healing can then continue until the blood vessel is fully repaired. This is a very complex operation involving several blood components and cell growth, but the process can be simplified and applied to artificial structures.
The simplest self-healing structures respond to local breaks in a continuous fabric by repairing them. Self-healing automobile tires are a classic example in which a new polymer is formed to bridge over punctures in the initial polymeric tire structure. Clearly, these tires repair ...
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