Abstract

Traditionally, cementitious blends have been employed in engineering applications either as remedial works or part of the permanent infrastructure. Although the design has a built-in redundancy for structural safety under a variety of adverse events, over the long-term, repair and eventual replacement has been inevitable. A solution has been proposed in recent years through the development of a new breed of “smart” cement. This material has the ability to respond to damage and recover functionality; namely heal itself.

Aim of this research was to introduce this self-healing design approach to traditional blended cement suspensions, assess their self-actuating recovery potential and further enhance it through the addition of repairing agents. To achieve the latter, micron-sized polymeric capsules were developed and characterised. These microscopic capsules were designed to deliver repair agents that target known areas of stress build-up inside the composite matrix. The proposed composite system was evaluated and the self-healing concept confirmed.