Self-Healing Concrete: A Solution for Cracks in Construction

Running head: SELF – HEALING CONCRETE
Self – Healing Concrete
Name of the Student
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Author Note

1SELF – HEALING CONCRETE
Executive Summary
The study discusses about the self-healing process of concrete in the construction process.
The occurrence of crack in the construction is one of the common phenomenon due to its low
tensile strengths. When a there is a crack in the concrete, the liquid materials and the water
can easily reach to the stills and there are more cracks in the concretes. In recent times, the
issue of concrete degradation has become one of the biggest problem in the construction
industry. With time, the concretes of construction will crack, although the whole process is
well maintained and well-constructed. The chemical self-healing process is the artificial
process in which chemical compounds are injected in to the cracked area of the concrete for
promoting the healing process. On the other hand, in the biological self-healing process, is
mainly based on the use of microorganisms. Along with this, the microbial calcium
carbonate can also be used as a precipitating materials formed by the process of urea
hydrolysis, photosynthesis, and sulfate reduction of the bacteria which are used in this
process. The use of self-healing concrete in the construction will reduce the number of repair
cases and as a result less amount of cement will be required for the repairing process.
Although, it is reported that, the cost of the self-healing concrete technology is almost 2
times more than that of the traditional concrete use.

2SELF – HEALING CONCRETE
Table of Contents
Background...........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Brief History..........................................................................................................................................4
Methodology.........................................................................................................................................4
Self-Healing Concrete.......................................................................................................................5
Benefits.............................................................................................................................................6
Future Application of Self- Healing Concrete.......................................................................................7
Disadvantages of Self- Healing Concrete..............................................................................................8
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8

3SELF – HEALING CONCRETE
Background
In recent times, the issue of concrete degradation has become one of the biggest
problem in the construction industry. With time, the concretes of construction will crack,
although the whole process is well maintained and well-constructed (Muhammad et al. 2016).
Still this issue is faced by all the constructors. Hence, the water and the air can enter into the
structure and can react with the still material of the construction. As a result, the still erodes
and swells and therefore it causes more cracks. In order to reduce the repairing costs of the
construction building the, the use of self-healing concrete is very effective (Sh and Dopudja
2017).
Introduction
The occurrence of crack in the construction is one of the common phenomenon due to
its low tensile strengths. When a there is a crack in the concrete, the liquid materials and the
water can easily reach to the stills and there are more cracks in the concretes. The self-healing
concrete refers to the artificial substance that have the ability to repair the damage by
themselves without any external interventions by the human (Sh and Dopudja 2017). These
self-healing concrete materials generally can heal themselves after damage due to long
mechanical use. In the construction industry, the issue of cracks is very common and in most
of the cases those intrinsic cracks are not detected at all. So, it is very crucial to protect those
cracks so that the cost of the repairing can be lowered. It is reported that, the use of self-
healing concrete will cost three times more than that of the normal one, but it will reduce the
repair costs by 4 times. There are various types of self-healing mechanisms that are used in
recent times in the construction industry. For example it can be said that, the bacteria based
healing process, shape memory polymers. In addition to this, the use of bio-mineralization in
the healing of micro cracks has proven to be very effective. In this report concepts of self-