Cracked metal, heal thyself
Unexpected result shows that in some cases, pulling apart makes cracks in metal fuse together
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.
Read more:http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/tension-can-fuse-metal-1009.html
Video: Self-healing metal
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