MIT Researchers Discover Self-Healing Metal

Author:  The Shot Peener Staff
Source:  The Shot Peener magazine, Vol 28, Issue 1, Winter 2014
Doc ID:  2014008
Year of Publication:  2014
Abstract:  
It was a result so unexpected that MIT researchers initially thought it must be a mistake: Under certain conditions, putting a cracked piece of metal under tension — that is, exerting a force that would be expected to pull it apart —has the reverse effect, causing the crack to close and its edges to fuse together. The surprising finding could lead to self-healing materials that repair incipient damage before it has a chance to spread. The results were published in the journal Physical Review Letters in a paper by graduate student Guoqiang Xu and professor of materials science and engineering Michael Demkowicz.