Fatigue behavior of self-healing glass fiber/epoxy composites with addition of poly (ethylene-co-methacrylic acid) (EMAA)

Abstract

The interest in repair technologies for polymer composites has increased significantly over the last decades due to the growing use of these materials in structural applications. In this study, poly (ethylene-co-methacrylic acid) (EMAA) was used as self-healing agent to glass fiber/epoxy composite. Preliminary results showed that, for EMAA as healing agent, particle concentration has greater effect on properties of neat epoxy than particle size. Glass fiber reinforced composites with EMAA contents of 2 wt.% and 5 wt.% were manufactured using Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) and the effects of the healing agent on the composites properties were investigated using quasi-static tensile tests, fatigue tests and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA). Results show slight variation of properties, which was more pronounced as the content of EMAA increased. The healing efficiency was also investigated through fatigue tests and the addition of higher content of EMAA increased the number of cycles to failure after the healing activation cycle. In addition, EMAA was shown as more efficient healing agent when activated at early stages of damage.