AbstractMaterial and microstructure design in man-made materials has always been focused on damage prevention, i.e. under the appropriate loading conditions crack formation should not occur. This leads to excellent properties but the consequence of this design philosophy is that any damage formed can only grow and will not disappear "spontaneously". In nature, materials are optimized according to a "damage management" philosophy, i.e. the occurrence of damage is foreseen and a healing mechanism is built in.
Recently attempts have been made to redesign man-made materials with a self healing ability. In the presentation the concept and requirement for self healing behaviour will be presented and examples of current work in polymers, metals, ceramics and composites will be presented. The examples mainly concern experimental work but some attention will be given to micromechanical modeling of self healing behaviour too.