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Special Topic Issue on Self-Healing Materials

In this Special Topical Issue on Self-Healing Materials, we examine the different strategies for achieving healing functionality, presented at the 3 International Conference on Self-Healing Materials (ICSHM) in Bath, UK, June 2011, and at a dedicated symposium at the 8 Asian-Australasian Conference on Composite Materials (ACCM8) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in November 2012. Biological systems have the ability to sense, react, regulate, evolve, regenerate, and heal; as such, they provide much inspiration for the addition of greater functionality to the engineered designs, structures and materials in our surroundings. Taking one example, the self-healing functionality present in biological organisms remains a complex and highly efficient means, evolved over thousands of years, to survive trauma, infection and environmental damage. It is, therefore, no surprise that engineers and scientists are seeking to understand and mimic this remarkable process to deploy within man-made materials to improve performance, prolong service life and meet the demands of delivering sustainable technologies. Self-healing in engineering materials of many types is attracting considerable interest given the potential to undertake autonomous and in-situ repair following a damage event. Taking inspiration from nature, the healing function for maintaining integrity within a loadbearing structure or protective coating is analogous to tissue repair in animals and plants. Conventional repair of a damaged structural component or protective coating can be challenging and expensive to undertake and often, in the absence of meticulous inspection, damage can remain undetected, possibly leading to larger scale or more serious damage in the longer term. This special issue provides a glimpse of the diverse multidisciplinary research being conducted by scientists and engineers from around the world in this rapidly developing field. Dr. Ian P Bond Professor, Aerospace Materials Head of Aerospace Engineering i.p.bond@bristol.ac.uk Dr. Richard S Trask Reader, Multifunctional Materials R.S.Trask@bristol.ac.uk Dr Russell J Varley Stream Leader High Performance Composite Materials russell.varley@csiro.au