{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"inversion_of_control__chemistry_materials","arm":"CONSTRAINED_HIGH","candidate_id":"inversion_of_control__chemistry_materials__CONSTRAINED_HIGH","decision":"PROPOSAL","abstention_reason":null,"proposal":{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"inversion_of_control__chemistry_materials","arm":"CONSTRAINED_HIGH","candidate_id":"inversion_of_control__chemistry_materials__CONSTRAINED_HIGH","proposal_index":1,"version":0,"title":"Crack-Triggered Two-Part Microcapsule Repair in Epoxy Composites","problem":"Microcracks in an epoxy-matrix composite can form and propagate between scheduled inspections. Maintenance personnel normally initiate repair after detecting damage, but the crack location and time of formation are known first by the material state itself. This timing mismatch can leave fresh crack surfaces unsupported during subsequent loading.","actors":["Epoxy-matrix composite","Growing microcrack and its newly exposed surfaces","Embedded mechanically rupturable two-compartment microcapsules","Encapsulated resin and hardener","Composite maintainer","Materials test team"],"observable_state":"A crack intersects and opens one or more capsules; released components enter the crack by capillary flow, mix, and cure across opposing crack faces. Observable states include capsule rupture, localized tracer release, crack-face wetting, cure formation, crack reopening displacement, specimen compliance, and subsequent crack extension under cyclic loading.","consequence":"Without local activation, a crack may continue extending before inspection and external repair, degrading stiffness or load-bearing integrity. If the material-triggered sequence functions, a cured bridge forms at the damage site and can restore local load transfer or impede further crack opening without waiting for detection or command.","affected_objective":"Preserve composite damage tolerance between inspections by reducing the opportunity for a newly formed microcrack to propagate before repair begins.","intervention":"Disperse mechanically rupturable, two-compartment microcapsules through a test epoxy matrix. Each capsule keeps a compatible resin and hardener isolated during manufacture and ordinary service. When a propagating crack physically intersects a capsule and opens its shell, both components are released into the crack, drawn along its fresh surfaces by capillarity, mixed by their co-flow and crack motion, and cured into a local polymer bridge. Capsule shell strength, dose, spacing, liquid viscosity, wetting, and cure rate define the bounded activation interface. The intervention is one-shot and local; conventional inspection and repair remain a fallback rather than the operative trigger.","structural_mapping":[{"archetype_element":"Usual controller","domain_realization":"A maintainer or scheduled inspection regime that normally detects damage and initiates external repair."},{"archetype_element":"Context holder","domain_realization":"The growing crack, whose position and opening event embody the earliest local information about where and when repair material is needed."},{"archetype_element":"Control boundary","domain_realization":"The capsule shell separates stored reagents from the matrix and transfers initiation from the maintainer to a mechanically intersecting crack."},{"archetype_element":"Activation rule","domain_realization":"Release occurs only when crack-induced local stress and displacement rupture a capsule shell; intact capsules remain closed."},{"archetype_element":"Interface contract","domain_realization":"Capsule geometry, rupture threshold, reagent ratio, viscosity, wetting, working time, and cured compatibility constrain what the crack can activate and what material response follows."},{"archetype_element":"Delegation rule","domain_realization":"The crack can activate only the finite dose in capsules it intersects; it cannot initiate bulk curing or alter material outside the local damage path."},{"archetype_element":"Feedback signal","domain_realization":"Crack opening causes release and localization; successful cure increases local resistance to reopening, while unopened downstream capsules remain isolated if propagation stops."},{"archetype_element":"Guardrail","domain_realization":"Separated reagents, finite capsule volume, a rupture threshold above fabrication stresses, and chemistry selected for bounded cure temperature limit premature or runaway activation."},{"archetype_element":"Override or fallback path","domain_realization":"Ordinary inspection, removal from service, and external repair remain available when capsules are exhausted, missed by the crack, or fail to cure."},{"archetype_element":"Audit trail","domain_realization":"An optional inert tracer co-released with the reagents permits microscopy of which capsules ruptured and where liquid traveled; it is evidentiary and not required for healing."}],"mechanism_mapping":[{"mechanism_slug":"recipient_triggered_support_channel","role":"The damaged region is the recipient and directly opens a bounded material-support channel: crack intersection releases a local repair dose without an upstream repair decision.","counterfactual_removal":"If crack-local rupture no longer opens the reagent channel, the components remain isolated and no autonomous bridge forms; scheduled external repair again becomes the initiator."},{"mechanism_slug":"event_listener_or_webhook","role":"The capsule shell is a wholly physical event gate: it converts the mechanical event of crack intersection into immediate reagent release, with no electronic sensor, computation, report, or human interpretation.","counterfactual_removal":"If the shell does not mechanically couple crack passage to release, damage may occur without activation, destroying the inverted initiation relationship."}],"causal_chain":["A microcrack nucleates and advances through the epoxy matrix before a maintainer detects it.","The advancing crack concentrates stress at, intersects, and opens an embedded capsule shell.","Mechanical rupture directly releases previously separated resin and hardener at the damage location.","Capillary pressure and wetting draw the liquids over fresh crack surfaces; co-release and crack motion promote contact between the components.","The components chemically cross-link within the crack.","The cured material bridges opposing faces and carries local traction or obstructs reopening.","If this bridge changes subsequent crack extension relative to matched controls, the damage event has successfully initiated its own bounded repair response."],"baseline":"An otherwise matched epoxy composite without active capsules, managed through periodic inspection followed by externally initiated injection, patching, or component replacement after damage is found.","nearest_rivals":["Passive matrix toughening with rubber particles, thermoplastic domains, or fibers, which continuously dissipates crack energy but does not let the crack initiate delivery and cure of fresh repair material.","A damage sensor followed by analytics, an alarm, and human repair, which can localize damage but depends on forbidden reporting and procedural response for its essential effect.","Externally triggered repair using applied heat, light, pressure, or injected adhesive, which supplies healing chemistry but retains initiation with an operator.","A damage-opened vascular reagent network, which preserves the same physical control inversion but uses refillable or connected channels rather than discrete finite capsules.","Empty or inert-liquid capsules that may deflect or blunt cracks mechanically but do not produce a chemically cured bridge."],"remaining_contrastive_claim":"The defensible contrast is causal rather than novel: unlike scheduled repair or externally triggered healing, crack propagation itself mechanically initiates localized delivery and curing; unlike passive toughening, the response creates new bonded material on the fresh crack surfaces. The candidate is supported only if active capsules outperform matched empty-shell and inert-fill controls after accounting for any baseline weakening caused by capsule inclusion.","authority_safety":{"decision_authority":"A materials laboratory principal investigator, with the institution's chemical-safety authority approving reagent selection and handling, may authorize coupon-scale testing; neither the material nor a technician may authorize structural deployment.","authorized_first_step":"Prepare only centimeter-scale, non-load-bearing coupons using small reagent quantities in contained laboratory equipment, then induce controlled cracks and measure release, cure, and subsequent crack behavior.","excluded_actions":["Deployment in aircraft, vehicles, buildings, pressure vessels, implants, or other safety-critical structures","Human or environmental exposure testing","Scale-up before compatibility, exotherm, leakage, and baseline-strength results are reviewed","Treating absence of visible damage as proof that healing occurred","Use of volatile, highly sensitizing, or strongly exothermic reagent pairs without separate hazard controls"],"halt_rollback":"Stop fabrication or testing upon premature capsule rupture, uncontrolled temperature rise, unexpected vapor or leakage, or specimen weakening that compromises safe handling. Quench or contain reagents according to their laboratory safety plan, dispose of affected coupons as chemical waste, and revert subsequent tests to unmodified epoxy controls."},"negative_tests":{"strongest_counterevidence":"The strongest counterevidence would be that capsules either rupture during fabrication and normal cycling or remain intact when cracks pass; released liquids fail to wet, mix, or cure in the crack; active coupons show no crack-growth distinction from empty-shell or inert-fill controls; or capsule-created voids worsen damage more than cured bridges resist it.","problem_falsifier":"The stated control mismatch is falsified for the selected application if damaging cracks are reliably detected and externally repaired before further loading, if the relevant failures are dominated by abrupt overload rather than between-inspection propagation, or if crack paths rarely encounter a feasible capsule distribution.","intervention_falsifier":"The intervention is falsified if, under preregistered coupon conditions, crack-triggered release and in-crack cure cannot both be directly observed, or active capsules do not improve the prespecified post-crack propagation or compliance measure relative to matched empty-shell and inert-fill controls after adjusting for pre-crack material properties.","risks":["Capsules may act as defects and reduce initial stiffness, strength, fatigue life, or environmental resistance.","Premature rupture may shorten shelf life or initiate unwanted local curing during manufacture.","Poor component mixing, wetting, or stoichiometry may leave a weak liquid-filled crack.","Cure shrinkage or heat may add residual stress or damage the surrounding matrix.","The finite one-shot dose may be exhausted by repeated or spatially separated damage.","Reactive components or degradation products may leak, sensitize workers, or create disposal hazards.","Apparent autonomous healing could encourage unsafe extension of inspection intervals without structural evidence."]},"next_evidence_step":"Run one bounded, preregistered coupon experiment with four matched arms: unmodified epoxy, empty capsules, inert-liquid capsules, and active two-part capsules. Characterize pre-crack properties, introduce a controlled crack through a capsule-populated region, image rupture and tracer travel, verify local cure chemically or mechanically, and compare blinded post-event crack extension and compliance under the same cyclic loading. Advance only if activation, cure, and a distinction from both capsule controls are observed without unacceptable baseline degradation.","prior_art_status":"UNSEARCHED","diversity_from_prior_proposals":"Comparison with other proposals was prohibited by runtime isolation. Within the supplied archetype record, this candidate uses a mechanically damage-triggered material transformation rather than a software, information-routing, governance, training, or incentive implementation.","revision_record":{"parent_version":null,"progress_targets_addressed":["Construct one chemistry-and-materials realization that preserves reversal of initiation.","Make the crack-local physical event, rather than sensing or reporting, the operative trigger.","Provide controls capable of separating chemical healing from passive capsule toughening or weakening.","Bound authority to laboratory evidence generation and exclude structural deployment."],"conceptual_changes":["Instantiated the context holder as a crack and the activation boundary as a rupturable capsule shell.","Separated inverted initiation from passive toughening and from downstream sensor analytics."],"operational_changes":["Specified a two-compartment finite-dose capsule and a four-arm coupon test.","Added physical, chemical, and deployment safeguards."],"evidence_changes":["Set direct observation of rupture, reagent travel, cure, and subsequent crack behavior as the first evidence requirements.","Included empty-shell and inert-fill controls to test rival mechanisms."],"claim_changes":["Limited the claim to a testable causal contrast.","Made no claim of novelty, prevalence, demand, or effect size."]},"substrate_contract":{"primary_allowed_process":"PHYSICAL_MATERIAL","counterfactual_independence":"The essential effect survives removal of all software, algorithmic inference, dashboards, reporting, incentives, authorization rules, and procedural enforcement. A crack mechanically ruptures a shell; capillary forces transport liquid; molecular contact and chemical cross-linking form a bridge. These steps occur in an unattended coupon. Human governance is needed only to select safe experiments and decide whether to deploy the material, not to produce the proposed repair effect.","forbidden_channel_audit":"No sensor, model, database, software control loop, alarm, maintenance workflow, training program, or incentive activates healing. Microscopy, tracer imaging, and mechanical measurements are evaluation instruments only and can be removed without preventing crack-triggered rupture, fluid transport, or cure. Scheduled inspection is retained solely as a safety fallback and is not part of the intervention's essential causal chain."}}}