A generalised diffuse-interface framework for modelling thermally-activated self-healing

A long-lasting and reliable system is always the principal target of any materials engineering efforts. Self-healing offers a transformative route for this target by restoring the structural integrity and recovering mechanical properties of the damaged material. Owing to its significance, across varied material systems, a generalised framework is developed in this work to model thermally-activated self-healing. This formulation sets-off with a minimal healing-law, that encompasses key features of thermally-activated healing across varied systems while sustaining the generality. The diffuse-interface model built on this law reflects the influence of temperature and activation energy on healing. This effect of temperature and activation energy on thermal healing is investigated and its coherence with experimental observation is presented. Recovery of stiffness, which accompanies healing, is examined in simulations associated with varying temperature and activation energy. Besides isothermal conditions, healing is modelled at varying temperature to demonstrate the ability of the present approach in capturing the non-isothermal evolution recovery of damaged region. The internal consistency and robustness of the formulation is studied by the comparative analysis of parameter emerging from different driving-forces (thermal and mechanical), and perturbing the constant, respectively. Implemented in GPU environment, the present approach offers a generalised yet computationally efficient framework to theoretically analyse thermally-activated self-healing across wide-range of materials at different temperatures.