Biologically Inspired
Inspired by the amazing job that our blood does in healing our bodies, scientists at the University of Bristol have developed a prototype plastic material designed to repair itself when damaged. This self-healing material can be developed for structural engineering projects, and composite structures such as aircraft, enabling them to repair themselves autonomously.

Dr Richard Trask is a senior lecturer in the Aerospace Department at the University of Bristol and works with Professor Ian Bond as part of the University’s Multifunctional Composite Group. He explains how they are using a structure similar to that of the veins and arteries in our bodies, their material has tiny hollow channels to carry a yellow-coloured liquid resin – artificial blood. Similar to how blood clots to fix leakages, the resin escapes into any damaged areas and within an hour the resin will have turned hard and the repair job will be complete.

Structures of the Future
Trask compares the structure of the advanced fibre reinforced composite material they use with that of a tree’s, which comprises a fibrous structure, and a resin to hold all the fibres together. Trask says, ‘I work in the fields of engineering composites, but most of my inspiration comes from biological systems. The most logical thing is about how you and I go about healing ourselves.’

Another way they are learning from nature is how it solves specific problems. Trask explains, ‘when engineers design a structure they are always thinking about the failure of it, because it could be the loss of human life. So you think about making an engineering structure overly efficient.’ He describes this as the traditional view of engineering, but current thinking is that you won’t have a structure just taking load, it will have another function, and that function could be sensing damage, or it could be healing.