SELF HEALING CONCRETE

SUPERVISED BY: PROF.SHAFIK KHOURY AND PROF.MONA ELSALAMWY

 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

REASON OF CRACKS

METHODS OF SELF HEALING

ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES

SUMMARY

2
 INTRODUCTION
What is Self-healing Concrete?

Self-healing Concrete is defined as a type of concrete that exhibits self-healing properties.

Self-healing or self-repairing of concrete is that property by which concrete undergoes
crack repair and rectification, either by autonomous or by autogenous methods.

The characteristics of concrete that defines all of these activities is it’s

durability. Durability is the materialistic property which helps the concrete shield itself from
attacks that can be of physical or chemical nature. With lessening durability, there is more
chances of development of cracks.

Some of the major types of cracks in concrete are: Settlement cracks, Expansion cracks,
Plastic shrinkage cracks, Shear and flexural cracks, Cracks resulting from corrosion of
reinforcement, Cracks due to weathering, due to thermal stresses and faulty designing.
3
 REASONS OF CRACKS:

The reasons behind crack :

•Improper mixing, vibration and curing.
•Application of heavy loads.
•Usage of inferior quality materials (Like reinforcements – easy
corrosion)
•Adverse temperature influences
•Poor mix design
•Excessive water in concrete, Non- maintenance of proper
water- cement ratio.
 METHODS OF SELF HEALING
• Autogenous Self-healing Concrete (Cracks less than 0.3mm)
• In this method unhydrated cement particles comes in contact with air and water to produce
lime on the outer surface of concrete.
• Water enters the crack to hydrate the concrete’s Calcium Oxide to form Calcium Hydroxide
that reacts with CO2 to form Calcium Carbonate

5 • This reaction with water of cement helps rectify hair line cracks by the innate properties of
concrete and dissolution of calcium.
 METHODS OF SELF HEALING
• Autonomous Self-healing Concrete
• While autogenous self-healing method is intrinsic, it can only prove effective to tackle small cracks. This is where
autonomous self-healing methods hold ground. To improve performance and for concrete repair, here additional
external self-healing provisions are catered.
• 1)Vascular self-healing method
• Vascular self – healing is a multiple healing technique where concrete is embedded with a hollow tube network
bearing a healing agent inside it. Also, these long parallel tubes should form a good bonding with concrete.
Diameters of the glass tubes typically range from 0.8 mm to 4 mm
• On encountering a crack in the concrete, the healing agent leaks due to hydrostatic pressures along with capillary or
gravitational forces to seal the crack.

6
 METHODS OF SELF HEALING
• Autonomous Self-healing Concrete
• 2)Capsule based Self-healing method
• For self-healing by means of encapsulated polymeric healing agents, the most common trigger mechanism is crack
appearance. Crack formation is immediately followed by release of the healing agent into the crack and healing only
depends on curing of the agent.
• The micro capsule used in this technique can be of cylindrical or spherical shape. The shell material can be of silica,
ceramics, glass, polystyrene or urea-formaldehyde. The healing efficiency of this method depends on the
cementitious matrix and properties of embedded capsules.
• When these capsules come into contact with one another and breaks open, healing components are released and
crack gets cured. The healing agents can be epoxy resins, poly urethane or Methyl methacrylate monomers (MMA).

7
 METHODS OF SELF HEALING
• Autonomous Self-healing Concrete
• 3)Embedding shape memory alloys (SMAs) method
• Shape Memory Alloys are a type of smart material that can be used in concrete
since it has a unique property of determining the previous shape even after
undergoing deformation. Basically they serve the objective of self-centering.
• The fundamental idea is that when cracks are formed then such materials with
short predefined memory shape could shrink in a controlled condition, thereby
generating a contraction to optimally act as a crack closure agent.
• Researchers have investigated the effects of using electrical currents to heat
the Shape Memory Alloy wires and there after administering the same into
concrete beams. The heated wires proved to be effective in crack repairing and
closed the cracks.

8
 METHODS OF SELF HEALING
• Autonomous Self-healing Concrete
• 4)Microbial or Bacterial Self-healing Concrete
• Bascilius bacteria reacts with Oxygen to form Calcium Carbonate
• Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3 ) precipitation help repair the micro-cracks in
concrete under the method of microbial/bacterial self – healing. Microbial
spores and calcium nutrients containing healing agents are first produced in
batches and later incorporated into concrete. Researchers have trailed with
microbial concrete intrusion in concrete, for example in the side walls of a ship
lock and observed the cracks go healed within a time frame of 60 days.

9
 METHODS OF SELF HEALING
• Autonomous Self-healing Concrete
• 4)Microbial or Bacterial Self-healing Concrete

10
 ADVANTAGES
• Doesn’t require human intervention
• Low permeability
• Reduction in corrosion of reinforced steel
• Increases compressive and flexural strength
• In bacterial method (bacteria is harmless to human)
• Increase in durability

11
 DISADVANTAGES
• High cost in comparison with ordinary concrete
• No available codes
• Bacterial growth is unfavorable at some conditions

12
 SUMMARY
Cracks in concrete are a common phenomenon due to its relatively low tensile
strength. Durability of concrete is impaired by these cracks since they provide
an easy path for the transportation of liquids and gases that potentially
contain harmful substances. If microcracks grow and reach the reinforcement,
not only the concrete itself may be attacked, but also the reinforcement steel
bars will be corroded. Therefore, it is important to control the crack width and
to heal the cracks as soon as possible. Selfhealing of cracks in concrete would
contribute to a longer service life of concrete structures and would make the
material not only more durable but also more sustainabl

13
THANK YOU