Spotlight on mechanical properties of autogenic self-healing of concrete

Abstract

Self-healing concrete is defined as the concrete ability to recover its cracks. Cracks in concrete are a common phenomenon that reveals adverse effects on a structure’s integrity, durability, and serviceability due to its relatively low tensile strength. Recently, self-healing techniques have been developed to ensure crack recovery and implemented in strategic structures to optimize maintenance costs. This study aims to highlight one self-healing technique type named the “autogenic self-healing technique”. Four mixes including the control were designed and established to examine the self-healing mechanism when using mineral admixtures such as fly ash and polyvinyl alcohol fiber (PVA fiber) at various percentiles. All mixes encountered 20% cement volume replacement by fly ash with various PVA fiber percentile additions: 1, 1.5, and 2%. Compressive, flexural, and tensile strengths were examined after cracking and failure. The cube prism and cylinder specimens were cracked and then cured at 28 days for testing to failure. The results showed that the compressive strength recovered in mixes with 1.5 and 2% PVA. This work provides promising insight on cracks healing or recovery to a certain extent