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In this research work, the self-healing behavior of epoxy matrix composite which reinforced by hollow glass fibers as self-healing container was investigated. For doing this, in first step, the hollow glass fibers were filled with the epoxy resin and hardener by creating a partial vacuum. Then, the filled hollow glass fibers with different percent of 1, 3 and 5 vol.% were embedded in the epoxy matrix. In the next step, by applying press, the destruction was created in these composites. Then, these destructed composites were healed at ambient temperature at different times of 2, 4, 7 and 14 days. Then, for accessing to the optimum healing time and percentage of hollow fibers in composite, the flexural test was applied in these composites. In the final step, the mechanical properties of composite with the optimum healing time and percentage of reinforcement were evaluated via tensile, flexural and impact exams. The obtained results show that the optimum percentage of hollow fibers and time for healing process are 3 vol.% and 7 days. Also, the healing efficiency of composite in optimum conditions (3 vol.% hollow fibers and 7 days healing time) at tensile, flexural and impact exams were approximately 77, 54 and 92 % respectively.

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In this work, effect of thermal cycling on the flexural properties of fiber-metal laminate (FML) has been evaluated. FML plates were composed by two aluminium 2024-T3 and a epoxy polymer-matrix composites ply formed by four layers of basalt fibers. For FML samples the thermal cycle times were about 6 min for temperature cycles from 25 °C to 115 °C. Flexural properties were evaluated on samples after 20, 35 and 55 thermal cycles, and compared to non-exposed samples. While the thermal cycling decreased the flexural strength of chemical treated FML (etched aluminium), increasing at first, and then decreasing after a while was observed in electrochemical treated FML (anodized aluminium). The flexural modulus of FML showed irregularly changes for both of FML with anodized aluminium and FML with etched aluminium. The energy absorption of FML with etched aluminium showed a sharp decline with increasing thermal cycling while the energy absorption of FML with anodized aluminium showed a Low and irregular changes. Evaluation optical microscope showed that the mechanism of failure for the FML with etched aluminium after thermal cycling changed from failure of FML to separation between layers of FML, while for the FML with anodized aluminium before and after thermal cycling it was failure of FML and it has not changed.