Self-healing materials are inspired on self-healing capabilities of living organisms. For plants,
animals and people, the vascular system that distributes nutrients to all parts of the organism is also
key for the self-healing capability. In a concrete element, a self-healing approach with an incorporated
vascular system possess advantages towards repeatable self-healing and controlled placement of the
self-healing system in the areas of interest. This study presents such a vascular system, which is
designed to be accessible from outside of the concrete beam. Both clay and inorganic phosphate
cement are compared as materials for the vanes of this system. The specimen contain steel
reinforcement and are tested by means of 4-point bending, in order to obtain realistic conditions. Ease
of construction and placement are discussed. From the experiments it can be seen that repeatable selfhealing
is possible, that the system is able to heal multiple cracks at the same time and that cracks can
be sealed and mechanical properties restored
