Abstract

The generation of cracks in cementitious materials can lead to the shortening of a structures service life whilst requiring costly inspection, repair and maintenance. Although all cementitious materials possess some inherent autogenous self-healing capability, the addition of engineered materials for autonomic self-healing has been proposed. Here, microcapsules can be added into the cementitious mixture and disperse throughout the hardened material. Upon crack formation, microcapsules are mechanically ruptured and subsequently release their encapsulated healing agent into the crack volume.

In this talk, I will discuss the development, manufacture and optimisation of microcapsules for self-healing cementitious materials using microfluidics. This involves the establishment of a production protocol and the study of the materials to be used as shell and as healing agent. Features of the design of these microcapsules, their addition into the cementitious matrix and their physical triggering will be considered. Chemical and mechanical properties of the selected acrylate shell were finely tuned to propose an optimum microcapsule for this given application.