Robust Self-Healing Concrete for Sustainable Infrastructure

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of self-healing concrete for sustainable infrastructure through reduction of maintenance and repair in the use phase. To realize this goal, self-healing must observe at least six robustness criteria - long shelf life, pervasive, quality, reliable, versatile, and repeatable. Five broad categories of self-healing approaches, namely chemical encapsulation, bacterial encapsulation, mineral admixtures, chemical in glass tubing, and intrinsic healing with self-controlled tight crack width, are evaluated against the robustness criteria. It is suggested that while significant progress has been made over the last decade in laboratory studies, important knowledge gaps must be filled in all categories of self-healing approaches to attain the goal of smart sustainable infrastructures that possess self-repair capability in the field.