Self-healing ability of structural ceramics - A review

Abstract

The development and characterization of self-healing structural ceramics have been inspired by researchers in which damage triggers an autonomic healing response. This is one of the emerging and fascinating areas of research that could significantly extend the working life and safety of the ceramic components at higher temperature. The structural ceramics are superior in strength to metal at high temperature, but they are brittle and sensitive to flaws. Due to this, the structural integrity of the ceramic components is seriously affected. There are few advantages in crack healing ability of materials (a) higher fabrication efficient at low cost, of the self-healing takes place after the machining is performed, (b) reliability of the material improves, when all the cracks are healed and (c) if the crack gets healed in service, the full strength of the material is recovered. In this paper, Overview of various self-healing concepts for structural ceramic materials; Literature crack healing ability and the Parameters that influence the crack healing are presented. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.