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Self-healing of Cracks in Concrete

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Basic Research on Concrete and Applications
Proceedings of an ASMES International Workshop
Wittmann Folker H. and Mercier Olivier, editors
Aedificatio Publishers Freiburg, Germany (2011) 303 - 314

Self-healing of Cracks in Concrete

K. Van Tittelboom1, N. De Belie1, P. Zhang2 and F.H. Wittmann2,3
1
Ghent University, Magnel Laboratory for Concrete Research, Department
of Structural Engineering, Technologiepark - Zwijnaarde 904, B-9052
Ghent, Belgium
2
Qingdao Technological University, Center for Durability and Sustainability
Studies, Fushun Road 11, Qingdao 266033, PR China
3
Aedificat Institute Freiburg, Schlierbergstrasse 80, D-79100 Freiburg,
Germany

ABSTRACT

Repair of cracks in concrete is an important issue as cracks may

endanger durability and reduce service life of reinforced concrete
structures; however, large costs are generally involved if cracks are to be
repaired and sometimes repair is even impossible due to inaccessibility.
Therefore, in this project, we attempt to heal cracks autonomously by
embedding an encapsulated healing agent into the matrix.
Water sorption measurements demonstrated there is no significant
difference between the efficiency of manual and autonomous crack repair.
The self-healing efficiency was also proven through visualization of the
water flow by means of neutron radiography. It was shown that manually
and autonomously healed cracks were water tight as no water ingress into
the crack was noticed. For untreated cracks fast ingress of water was
noticed along the length of the crack.

Keywords: Autonomous crack healing; Cementitious materials; Water sorption;

Neutron radiography.

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 K. Van Tittelboom, N. De Belie, P. Zhang and F.H. Wittmann

1 INTRODUCTION

In the case of concrete, occurrence of cracks is inevitable. Concrete can

bear high compressive forces, however, the tensile strength is limited. In
the tension zone, concrete will always exhibit cracks. In the initial stage,
this causes no problems relating to the load bearing capacity but it does
generate durability problems. Aggressive liquids and gasses may enter
these cracks and they may cause concrete degradation. Therefore, cracks
will grow, and subsequently, aggressive substances may reach the
reinforcement and induce corrosion which may then lead to structural
failure. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that concrete cracks are
repaired soon after they appear. However, large costs are involved in
concrete crack repair. Moreover, the indirect costs due to traffic jams and
loss of productivity are estimated to be even ten times higher than the
direct costs due to the repair works. As a consequence autonomous crack
healing may not only lead to more durable concrete structures, but it might
also lead to saving of costs.
Similar to broken bones which are able to heal autonomously and
damaged skin which may self-regenerate, we want concrete to heal
occurring damage by itself. Therefore, we need to re-design the material
in order that the formation of damage is counteracted by a subsequent
autonomous process of healing the damage. This means that the empty
spaces created by cracks and defects need to be filled by new matter in
order to seal the cracks, so that aggressive substances may no longer
enter, and eventually mechanical properties are restored.
In order to fill the empty spaces, created by cracks, some material needs
to be transferred to the location of the defect. Consequently, a mobile
liquid healing agent is needed. The viscosity of the healing agent should
be low, so it can easily reach the tiniest micro-cracks. Once this agent
reaches the place of the defect it should preferentially expand so that a
bigger crack space may be filled while only small volumes are occupied by
this liquid agent before occurrence of damage. Another requisite for the
healing agent is that it must form a sufficiently strong bond between the
crack faces.

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Furthermore, carriers are needed which contain the healing agent and
which are able to sense damage and trigger the healing mechanism by
releasing the healing agent. Brittle materials which are embedded inside
the cementitious matrix and break whenever cracks in the matrix appear
may be suitable. In addition, the encapsulation material should exhibit
good adhesion to the matrix and limited extension in order to rupture upon
concrete cracking.
Several types of healing agents have already been tested in research on
self-healing of concrete. Mostly single-component, air-curing healing
agents, such as cyanoacrylates [1-3], epoxy [4-5], silicons [2] or alkali-
silica solutions [6], are preferred above multi-component healing agents,
because incomplete mixing of the different components is feared.
However, Dry et al. [7] stated that the potentially short shelf life of single-
component healing agents might be disadvantageous. They mentioned
that multi-component healing agents have more stability than single-
component healing agents because they are activated at a later date, i.e.
in situ. Therefore, they proposed the use of a multi-component
methylmethacrylate system [7-8] and a two-component epoxy resin [2].
In most investigations hollow glass tubes are used as encapsulation
material [1-3, 5-9]. In that case, the release of healing agent is activated
by crack formation, which results in breakage of the embedded brittle
glass tubes. The internal diameter of the tubes used ranges from 0.8 mm
[1] to 4 mm [5]. Although these diameters are quite large, Joseph et al. [3]
found that after crack formation only small amount of the healing agent
was drawn into the crack and that most of it remained inside the tubes due
to the capillary forces. Therefore, they decided that tubes with open ends
would be better as this would eliminate the suction effects of the closed
ends [3]. Also Mihashi et al. [6] and Dry et al. [9] made use of this
technique in which continuous hollow glass tubes were embedded inside
the specimens and were connected with a reservoir at the outside.
Another advantage of the latter technique is that an additional amount of
healing agent may be supplied when needed, so that larger cracks or a
greater amount of cracks may be healed. However, as the healing agent
needs to be supplied into the reservoir, this technique cannot be fully
considered as self-healing.

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 K. Van Tittelboom, N. De Belie, P. Zhang and F.H. Wittmann

In the research presented here, a two-component polyurethane foam was

used as healing agent. Both components of the healing agent are low
viscous and the polymerization reaction is not very sensitive to the mixing
ratio of both compounds. In addition, this agent expands upon reaction,
providing a double advantage. In the first place, the expanding reaction
acts as a driving force, pushing the healing agent out of the tubular
capsules upon crack formation. A second advantage of this expanding
reaction is that the additional volume created by the crack may be filled up
with this healing agent without leaving too many gaps behind. As the glass
capsules, used in most studies, may have a negative effect on the
concrete durability (alkali-silica-reaction), an alternative encapsulation
material i.e. ceramics was studied in this research.

2 PREPARATION OF THE SPECIMENS

2.1 Encapsulation of the healing agent

Ceramic tubes, with an inner diameter of approximately 3 mm and a
length of 75 mm, were used to carry the healing agent. A polyurethane-
based two-compound healing agent was used to seal the cracks. One
compound consists of a prepolymer of polyurethane and starts foaming in
moist surroundings. The second compound is an accelerator which
shortens the reaction time. Half of the tubes was filled with the prepolymer
and the other half was filled with a mixture of accelerator and water (water
+ 10% accelerator). First, the tubes were sealed at one end; then, the
tubes were filled with the components of the healing agent. When all tubes
were filled, the other ends were sealed. Finally, two tubes filled with each
of both compounds were glued together.

2.2 Concrete beams with(out) self-healing properties

Mortar beams were cast following the procedure described by Zhang et al.
[10]. All specimens were prepared by using the mortar composition given
in Table 1. Ordinary Portland cement (CEM I 52.5 N) and DIN standard
sand with a maximum grain size of 2 mm were mixed with tap water
according to the standard NBN EN 196-1.

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 Self-healing of Cracks in Concrete

Moulds with dimensions of 100 mm x 100 mm x 300 mm were used for

preparation of four series of mortar beams (Table 2). All beams were
reinforced with six steel bars having a diameter of 8 mm. Three steel bars
were positioned at a height of 25 mm, the remaining three bars were
positioned at 75 mm height (Fig. 1a).

Table 1: Composition of the mortar mix (W/C = 0.5)

Material Volume [kg/m³]

Sand 0/2 1530
CEM I 52.5 N 510
Water 255

Table 2: Test series used in the experiments

Code Description
UNCR Uncracked beams
REF Reference beams (no crack healing)
MAN Manual crack healing with polyurethane
SHC Self-healing of cracks with polyurethane

When beams of the test series ‘SHC’ were made, the moulds were filled in
several layers. First, a 10 mm mortar layer was brought into the moulds.
When this layer was compacted by means of vibration, six couples of
ceramic tubes (with one tube of each couple filled with polyurethane and
the other tube filled with a mix of accelerator and water) were placed on
top of it. Afterwards, the moulds were further filled with mortar until a layer
of approximately 40 mm was obtained. After this layer was vibrated, again
six couples of tubes were positioned onto this layer. Finally the moulds
were completely filled with mortar and vibrated.

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 K. Van Tittelboom, N. De Belie, P. Zhang and F.H. Wittmann

a b

Figure 1: Position of the steel reinforcement and the cutting lines (a) and resulting
specimen on which water sorption was measured (b)

Besides, four more test series were prepared in the same way as described
above, however, samples belonging to these series contained only
reinforcement bars. Beams containing to the first test series were left
uncracked (UNCR), the following series was used as reference (REF), which
would be cracked but from which the cracks were left untreated, the last series
was used for manual healing after crack formation with polyurethane (MAN).
After preparation, all beams were placed in an air conditioned room with a
temperature of 20°C and a relative humidity of more than 90%. Specimens
were demoulded 24 hours later. Then, the steel reinforced prisms were cut with
a diamond saw into three slices along the long axis of the prisms, as shown in
Fig. 1a.
After 14 days curing the obtained slices could be loaded in three point
bending in order to create cracks.

3 CREATION OF CRACKS

At the age of 14 days, all test series, except the series ‘UNCR’, were
cracked by means of a crack width controlled three-point-bending test.
The crack width was measured by means of a linear variable differential
transformer with a measurement range of ± 5 mm and an accuracy of
5 µm. This LVDT was attached at the bottom of the sample and measured
the transformation over a distance of 8 cm. During the bending test,
mortar samples were placed onto two steel bars (diameter 40 mm)
creating a span of 280 mm. The force was applied, by means of a third
steel bar (diameter 16 mm), positioned in the middle of the specimen.

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 Self-healing of Cracks in Concrete

The crack width was increased with a velocity of 0.5 µm/sec until a crack
of 400 µm was reached. At that point, the specimen was unloaded causing
a decrease in crack width. The resulting crack width amounted
approximately 200 µm.

4 CRACK HEALING

Cracks of the specimens containing encapsulated healing agent were

autonomously healed. The embedded tubes broke during crack formation
and both components of the healing agent were released into the crack
due to capillary forces (Fig. 2a). Upon contact of both components,
polyurethane foam was formed, resulting in crack healing (Fig. 2b).
For the cracks which were manually healed with polyurethane, first, the
prepolymer was mixed with water and accelerator in the same proportions
as encapsulated in the tubes. Next, the mixture was injected into the crack
by means of a syringe with a needle. Injection was stopped when the
crack was completely filled with the healing agent.
Finally, from the centre part of all specimens, slices with a width of 100
mm were sawn (Fig. 1a and b).

a b

Figure 2: Leakage of glue out of the crack (a) and foaming of the polyurethane (b)

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 K. Van Tittelboom, N. De Belie, P. Zhang and F.H. Wittmann

5 EVALUATION OF THE CRACK HEALING EFFICIENCY

5.1 Capillary water sorption

The crack healing efficiency was evaluated by capillary water sorption
tests. When the specimens were 1 month old, they were placed in an oven
at a temperature of 50°C. After one week, specimens were removed and
the area of the surface with the crack mouth was determined. Then, the
square surfaces (100 mm x 100 mm) and the two opposite small surfaces
(25-30 mm x 100 mm) were covered with self-adhesive aluminium foil in
order to impose unidirectional moisture movement during the test. One
day later, specimens were weighed and afterwards the surface with the
crack mouth was placed on two line supports in a container which was
filled with water in such a way that the lower 0.5 cm of the specimens
were immersed in water. At regular time intervals, specimens were taken
out of the container and placed onto a non-absorptive support for one
minute before they were weighed.
From these measurements the coefficient of initial water sorption (Ai) was
determined as the slope of the linear curve fitting the measurements
obtained during the first hour. The Ai value measured for the reference
specimens (3.950) was very high as the crack was quickly filled with
water, while the uncracked specimens had much lower Ai (0.902), which
characterizes the undamaged cementitious material. The results showed
that there is no significant difference between the efficiency of manual and
autonomous crack repair (Fig. 3). The fact that the Ai values obtained for
the manually (1.133) and autonomously (1.312) healed samples were
higher than the value measured for the undamaged material is due to the
damage induced under the high tensile stress in the zone around the
crack before the crack was formed. This led to the conclusion that the
autonomous healed cracks were completely water tight and water uptake
was due to sorption by the damaged matrix only.

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 Self-healing of Cracks in Concrete

16

Increase in mass [kg/m²]

12

REF
4
UNCR

SHC

MAN
0
0 5 10 15 20
√Time [√hour]
Figure 3: Increase in mass due to water sorption (n = 3)

5.2 Neutron radiography

The findings mentioned above were verified by visualization of the water
migration by means of neutron radiography. These experiments were
performed at the neutron beam facility of Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in
Switzerland [11]. Similar as described above, specimens were dried and
covered with a self-adhesive aluminium foil. Then, specimens were placed
in a container and positioned in the neutron beam. After an image had
been taken in the dry state, the container was filled with water so that the
water level just touched the lower side of the samples. The kinetics of
water uptake was then followed by neutron radiography.
It was shown that both manually and autonomously healed cracks were
water tight as no water ingress into the cracked zone could be observed
(Fig. 4). Moreover, as part of the healing agent penetrated into the
damaged zone near the crack surfaces, no penetration of water into the
material near the crack was noticed. For untreated cracks fast ingress of
water was seen along the length of the crack. It was also proven that the
interface between steel and concrete was damaged due to crack
formation as water penetrated into the interface perpendicular to the crack
direction. From the neutron radiographs the moisture distribution could be

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 K. Van Tittelboom, N. De Belie, P. Zhang and F.H. Wittmann

determined quantitatively in order to compare the different test series in

detail. In the moisture profile of the reference specimen, a minimum is
seen at the position of the steel reinforcement as water cannot penetrate
this volume. It could be shown that neutron radiography is a very
promising non-destructive test method to study the efficiency of manual
and autonomous repair of cracks.

100

REF

0
0 0,05
100

Sample height [mm] MAN

0
0 0,05
100

SHC

0
0 0,05
Water content in
sample [g/cm³]

Figure 4: Neutron images of water penetration into cracked and healed reinforced
mortar prisms after contact with water for 2h, and corresponding quantitative water profiles
along a vertical axis of the sample (the crack is indicated by means of a rectangle)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Financial support from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-

Vlaanderen) for this study (Project No. G.0157.08) is gratefully
acknowledged.

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 Self-healing of Cracks in Concrete

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