Self Healing Materials : a new concept in materials science
Sybrand van der Zwaag, Fundamentals of Advanced Materials group, Faculty of
Aerospace Engineering, Technical University Delft.
 
Traditionally man-made construction materials have been developed on the
basis of damage prevention concepts. Nature however uses a damage
management concept to optimise most of its materials. Translation of the
concept has led to the first attempts to make self healing materials. In
this presentation some examples of self healing material developments
will be presented. While no solution has been found for fusion wall
reactor materials, this would be an attractive application and research
in this field should be initiated.