Damage-sensing, self-repairing concrete

In 2013 researchers in Cambridge joined forces with colleagues at the Universities of Cardiff (which lead the project) and Bath to create a new generation of ‘smart’ concrete and other cement-based construction materials.

“Previous attempts in this field have focused on individual technologies that provide only a partial solution to the multi-scale, spatial and temporal nature of damage,” explained Al-Tabbaa. By contrast, this study, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, provides an exciting opportunity to look at the benefits of combining several ‘healthcare packages’ in the same piece of concrete.

“Like the many processes that occur in skin, a combination of technologies has the potential to protect concrete from damage on multiple scales — and, moreover, to do this in a way that allows ‘restocking’ of the healing agents over time,” she added.

Mechanical damage can cause cracks, allowing water to seep in; freezing and thawing can then force the cracks wider. Loss of calcium in the concrete into the water can leave decalcified areas brittle. If fractures are deep enough to allow water to reach the reinforcing steel bars, then corrosion and disintegration spell the end for the structure.

The team in Cambridge is addressing damage at the nano/microscale by developing innovative microcapsules containing a cargo of mineral-based healing agent. It is like having a first-aid kit in a bubble: the idea is that physical and chemical triggers will cause the capsules to break open, releasing their healing and sealing agents to repair the lesion.

“While various cargo and shell materials have been developed for other applications, from food flavoring and pharmaceuticals to cosmetics and cleaning products, they are not generally applicable to cement-based matrices and are far too expensive for use in concrete, which is why we have needed to develop our own,” explained Al-Tabbaa.

Another challenge is to make sure the capsules will be strong enough to withstand being mixed in a cement mixer, yet fragile enough to be broken open by even the smallest of fractures. Innovative capsule production techniques are being investigated that can be scaled up to deliver the huge volumes of capsules required for use in construction.

In parallel, the team in Bath is investigating healing at the mid-range micro/mesoscale with spore-forming bacteria that act as tiny mineral-producing factories, feeding on nutrients added to the cement and facilitating calcite precipitation to plug the cracks in the concrete. Different techniques for housing and protecting the bacteria and nutrients within the cement matrix are being investigated, including the capsules that are being developed at Cambridge.

The University of Cardiff researchers are engineering “shape memory” plastic tendons into the cement matrix to close large cracks at the larger meso/macroscale through triggering of the shrinkage of the tendons by heat.

The project team are then collectively addressing repeated damage through the creation of vascular networks of hollow tubes, like the circulatory system of a living organism, so that self-healing components can continually be replenished.

The release notes that as the Cambridge researchers move closer to the best formulations for the microcapsules, they have begun collaborating with companies who can scale up the production to the levels required to seed tons of cement. Meanwhile, the three research groups are also beginning to test combinations of each of their techniques, to find the best recipe for maximum self-healing capability.

By the summer of 2015, with the help of industrial partners, field trials will test and refine the most promising combined systems in a range of real environments and real damage scenarios. This will include testing them in non-structural elements in the Department of Engineering’s new James Dyson Building.

“This is when it will become really exciting,” said Al-Tabbaa. “To be truly self-healing, the concrete needs to be responsive to the inherently multi-dimensional nature of damage, over long time scales. We want concrete to be a material for life that can heal itself again and again when wounded.”