Observed for the first time, a phenomenon where metals repair themselves by healing small cracks could upend our understanding of material theories, and may ultimately lead to revolutionary new engineering concepts like self-healing machines.
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories studying how microscopic cracks form in metals found that under the right circumstances, metals repair themselves, conjuring imagery similar to the famous villain seen in the film Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
Previously, scientists and engineers believed that cracks in metals only got worse over time and that the idea of these complex materials repairing themselves was impossible. If this latest finding can be applied in a practical way, future applications with more complex machines and structures like airplanes or bridges could potentially allow them to heal microscopic cracks before catastrophic failure occurs.
Crack in Metals Are Not Supposed to Repair Themselves
For decades, engineers and scientists who work with metals were confident about two things: metals form microscopic cracks after repeated loads, and over time those cracks can and will grow until they lead to catastrophic failure. Even simulation software used by engineers to develop anything from engine parts to massive structures takes these microscopic, often nanometer-in-size, cracks into account.
The Debrief previously reported on one Terminator-inspired liquid metal “robot” that researchers were able to shape-shift with a magnetic field, but that was a customized type of material and not an everyday metal.
In 2013, Michael Demkowicz, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of materials science and Engineering who is now a full professor at Texas A&M University, started to think that modern science may be wrong and that under certain circumstances, metals should be able to heal these micro fractures. After some research, theory, and…
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