Cracking and stimulated autogenous self-healing on the sustainability of cement-based materials: a review

Abstract

A sustainable community requires concrete infrastructures to have a longer service life to reduce solid wastes produced by reconstruction, while cracks shorten the service life by permitting the penetration of aggressive ions and deteriorating mechanical properties, therefore, the development of cement-based materials with stimulated autogenous self-healing is drawing increasing attention. In this paper, a detailed review on currently reported methods for stimulating autogenous self-healing and performance assessment is present. The addition of fly ash and slag, mineral additives or crystalline admixtures and varying exposure environments showed different degree of effectiveness in stimulating autogenous self-healing. Stimulated autogenous self-healing that achieved better crack closure did not necessarily lead to greater recovery in mechanical properties or durability of cracked specimens, highlighting the strong need for performance-based assessment of the stimulated autogenous self-healing in cement-based materials.

Keywords:

• Stimulated autogenous self-healing
• crack closure
• mechanical properties
• durability

Acknowledgment

The first author appreciates the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for the scholarship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.