#Self-healing technology one step closer after scientists produce aircraft wings which fix themselves Their research, due to be presented at a Royal Society meeting in London this week, is being billed as an important step in an emerging field which could soon produce self-healing nail polish and a cure for cracked mobile phone screens. A team at the University of Bristol has been quietly developing the technology for the past three years. Speaking exclusively to The Independent on Sunday, its leader, Professor Duncan wass said he expected self-healing products to reach consumers in the ery near future If crash helmets could self heal their durability could be increased massively (AFP/Getty) His team specialises in modifying carbon fibre composite materials, the strong but lightweight substances used increasingly widely in the manufacture of everything from commercial aircraft wings to sports racquets and high-performance bicycles. Professor Wass and his team have been working with aerospace engineers at the university, who wanted to know if there was a way of preventing the tiny, almost undetectable cracks that form in an aircraft wings and fuselage. The team ingenious solution started n the back of an envelopebut has developed since into useable technology. It involves adding tiny, hollow icrospheresto the carbon material so small that they look like a powder to the human eye which break on impact, releasing a liquid healing agent. The agent seeps into the cracks left by the damage before coming into contact with a catalyst, triggering a rapid chemical reaction which causes it to harden. e took inspiration from the human body, Professor wass said. ee not evolved to withstand any damage if we were like that we have a skin as thick as a rhinoceros but if we do get damaged, we bleed, and it scabs and heals. We just put that same sort of function into a synthetic material: let have something that can heal itself. Sports equipment such as golf clubs are made often from carbon fibre composites (Getty) Laboratory tests have established that the material is just as strong after it has ealed raising the possibility of aircraft wings that can repair themselves iterally on the flyif a bird strike takes place in mid-flight, Professor wass said. The technology could also make airline safety checks far cheaper as a dye could be added to the healing agent causing any damage to an aircraft to stand out like a bruise. This would allow engineers to identify damaged areas quickly and ensure that they do not miss anything as they examine the plane. Professor wass said a bruise was a ood analogybut accepted that the dye would need to be tweaked to cater for nervous fliers. e probably do it with something which is invisible to the naked eye that you need to put an ultraviolet light on, because you don want an aeroplane wing with a big red splodge on it showing that it been damaged. epending on the outside temperature, the material can take anywhere between a couple of hours and a day to recover. f youe on a runway in Dubai it would probably heal in a couple of hours, but if you were on a runway in Reykjavik in winter it would probably be more like 24 hours, Professor wass said. The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical sciences Research Council UK Catalysis Hub, a collaborative project between universities and industry. This week conference, entitled Catalysis Improving Society, will be one of the first events at which the team achievements have been detailed in public. The BMW i8 electric sports car has a carbon fibre passenger compartment to make up for the weight of its heavy battery Professor Richard Catlow of the University of London, one of the organisers of the meeting, said the research showed that catalysis which is used already widely in the petrochemicals industry could offer enormous benefits in other areas, at a elatively low costthe Bristol team advances could be applied to all kinds of carbon fibre composite materials meaning that self-healing golf clubs, tennis racquets, fishing rods and bike helmets could be just around the corner. The cosmetics firm Lréal has contacted also the team to register its interest in self-healing nail varnish. This would require different technology, but Professor wass said the general principle would remain the same. ee definitely getting to the stage where in the next five or 10 years wee going to see things like mobile phone screens that can heal themselves if they crack, he said. The dawn of self-healing technology was heralded in 2001, when researchers at the University of Illinois in the US created a plastic capable of repairing itself when it cracked. Last year, the same team created a polymer, inspired by the human blood-clotting system, which patched holes up to 3cm wide. Offshore wind turbines could benefit from selfhealing technology, as they are damaged often by bird strikes (AFP/Getty) Professor Wass team at the University of Bristol has been focusing on the creation of self-healing versions of carbon fibre composite materials, which are used widely in the aerospace industry but also have many other applications.**The BMW i8 electric sports car has a carbon fibre passenger compartment to make up for the weight of its heavy battery. The material is already attractive to car manufacturers as it is 30 per cent lighter than aluminium and self-healing technology would make it safer too.**The Airbus a380 passenger jet has a carbon fibre reinforced plastic fuselage for a lower fuel consumption. The researchers claim the new technology would allow wings to fix themselves in mid-flight, and allow engineers to spot cracks more easily.**Offshore wind turbines could also benefit from self-healing technology, as they are damaged often by bird strikes. The carbon composite blades are 100 feet in the air, so maintaining them is notoriously expensive and difficult.**Carbon fibre bicycle frames are popular with cyclists as they are so light, but they are also liable to crack. If they could self heal, their durability could be increased massively and the technology could also be applied to crash helmets.**Sports equipment such as tennis racquets, fishing rods and golf clubs are made often from carbon fibre composites for the same reasons i
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011