Self healing concepts in Civil Engineering for sustainable solutions: Potential and constraints

K. van Breugel
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Stevinweg 1, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands Tel. +31 15 2784954, K.vanBreugel@tudelft. nl

1.

ENVIRONMENT UNDER PRESSURE

In the past decade the building industry became faced with a number of serious and unprecedented problems. In the UK the building and construction industry is estim ated to be responsible for up to 50% of CO2 production [1]. There is an emerging shortage of raw materials. The buildi ng industry consumes a large amount of energy, while the production of cement is held responsible for 5 to 8 percent of the worlds CO 2 emissi on. Given the rapid growth of the economies of China and India, this figure is expected to increase dramatically if the technology to produce cement remains unchanged. Not less alarming is the news about the condition of many infrastructural works, like bridges. From 600,000 bridges i n the USA one out of four needs to be modernized or repaired [2]. The total amount of money involved in repair and upgrading is estimat ed at US$ 140,000,000,000 [3]. A similar inventory i n The Netherlands revealed that 50% of the bridges, viaducts and tunnels require further detailed inspection of the load bearing structure. In The Netherlands one third of the annual budget for large civil engineering works is spent on inspection, monitori ng, maintenance, upgrading and repair. In the UK a figure of 45% would hold [4]. Apart from the direct costs for maintenance and repair of bridges, the indirect costs caused by traffic interruptions have to be considered. These indirect costs are often ten times the direct costs [5]. The costs to the US economy of people spending time in traffic jams are estimated at $63 billion dollars per year [ 6]. 2. SUSTAINABILITY

High figures of CO 2 emission, energy and materials consumption, structural failures and huge indirect costs are anything but a sign of sustainability. Technological developments towards a sustainable society focus on, among other things [ 7]: - Minimizing resource c onsumption - Preference on renewable materials and energy - Closed cycles of non-renewables - Optimize the life span of a structure by using more reliable and easily repairable materials - Reduction of maintenance costs. In essence, self healing materials are i nherently sustainable. With the use of self healing materials the maintenance costs can be reduced and the life span of structures can be optimized. Apart from the lower consumption of resources, a l onger life span of structures also reduces the need for construction-related transport. Knowing that in industrialised countries 30-50% of the traffic is related to building

activities, enormous direct and indirect savings can be realised by extending the service life of our infrastructure, thus reducing the transport costs related to new built. 3. SELF-HEALING POTENTIAL OF CONCRETE

Inherent self healing of concrete Concrete is a heterogeneous, brittle and porous material, consisting of c oarse aggregat e and sand, about 70% by volume, and cement paste. The cement paste is the result of the reaction of cement and water. In most of the t raditional conc rete mixtures 20 - 30% of the cement is left unhydrated. The amount of unreacted cement is higher the coarser the cement and the lower the water/cement ratio. Because of its brittleness concrete is prone to cracking. If cracking of the concrete occurs, unreacted cement grains might become exposed to moisture penetrating the crack. In that case the hydration process may start again and hydration products may fill up and heal the crack. Only a few exceptions are known, however, where designers explicitly count on the occurrence of self-healing of cracks [8]. The reason for reluctance of designers t o make active use of the inherent self healing of concrete is the uncertainty about the occurrence of the phenomenon in the practice: cracks should be stable, which is not always t he case; the crack width should not be too large, but in practice the crack width exhibits a large scatter. Aware of this sc atter, designing for self healing is considered too tricky. Promoting self healing A cement-based product that is designed for small crack width is ECC (Engineered Cementitious Composites ) developed by Li et al. [8]. In ECC cracks are very fine due to the use of small fibres. The main purpose for designing ECC was to make a ductile material that is able to make large excursions in the post -cracking phase. Thus it can accommodate large imposed deformations and makes it perfectly suitable as repair material. Because of the small crack width (about 50 m) ECC has a remarkable self healing capacity, even recovery of the original strength. Self healing can be promoted by using capsules containing either a c ementitious or synthetic healing agent [8]. On cracking the capsules may rupture while releasing the healing agent. In case a cementitious healing agent is used, water should be prese nt as well. The water may penetrate into a crack from external sources. Alternatively water saturated porous lightwei ght aggregate particles can be added to the concrete mixture. A probably promising alternative to heal microcracks is the use of appropriate bacteria [9]. The idea is that after cracki ng mixed-in bacteria on fresh concrete crack surfaces become activated in the presence of water, and then start to multiply and precipitate minerals , such as calcium carbonate, and close the crack. Self heali ng coatings Besides studies on self healing concrete also the development of self healing coatings for concrete surfaces are worth considering. In the car industry promising examples are known of smart, self healing coatings. Since the durability of concrete structures largely dep ends on the permeability of the concrete cover, a tight and self repairing coating would really be a big step forward, as it neutralizes the scatter in the quality of the covercrete to a large extent.

4.

CONSTRAINTS

Self healing of cracks in bulk concrete When exposed to imposed deformations (thermal, hygral) the concrete may crack. Cracks may penetrate through the whole thickness of a concrete body. These through-cracks may jeopardize the liquid tightness of the concrete or, for example, its function as radiation shield. Designing a s elf healing concrete with the potential to seal and heal these through-cracks require that all th e concrete (the whole bulk) has this self healing capacity. In order t o increase the cost of the concrete not too much, the self healing agent whatever mechanism it might i nvolve should be cheap. Otherwise it will not be used. Covercrete About ninety percent of durability problems in concrete structures and premature failures is due to failure of the concrete cover (covercrete), followed by rebar corrosion. Rebar corrosion might occur due to ingress of chloride ions into the concrete. Microcracking of the covercrete caused by, for example, thermal or hygral gradients will promote ion transport into the concrete. To ensure a constant value of the transport properties a self healing covercrete would be a big step forward. However, in a regular concrete pouring process it is almost impossibl e to separate covercrete from the bulk concrete behind the cover z one. As a consequence, not only the covercrete, but also the bulk concret e has to be designed as self healing, which undoubtedly increases the costs of the project. Self healing in low-cement concrete The inherent self healing capacity is larger the higher the cement content of the concrete. From that point of view high strength concrete with high cement content is favourable. From the sustainability point of view, however, mixtures are desired with cement content as low as possible [10]. Using low cement content is positive in view of reduction of the cement -related CO 2 emission, but it reduces the concretes inherent capacity of self healing. In case low cement mixtures are required for sustainability reasons, any self healing capacity should be realised by appropriate mixture modi fications. Recyclability Concrete technologists dont want to mix odd materia ls in their mixtures because this might jeopardize the recyclability of the concrete. This is a serious point of concern indeed. 5. PROSPECTS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS

The infrastructure in industrialized countries accounts for at least 50% of our national wealth [11] . From that it can be inferred that the performance characteristics and quality of our infrastruct ure are of fundamental importance to urban sustainability and the well-being of our environment. Engineers should be aware of this when designing infrastructural works and when making choices for concrete mixtures. This awareness will generate, or stimulate, the demand for self healing materials. Recent changes in building contracts, i.e. design-built- maintenance-finance concepts, are expected to make large contractors prepared to invest in the development of smart

materials with self healing properties. On top of that contractors are becoming faced with criteria as regards the environmental/ecological impact of building activities. This further pushes both researchers and buil ders to invest in ways to mitigate the consequences of building activities on the environment. In view of the large impact of the building industry on the environment, promotingself healing materials can be considered as a matter of sustainable environmental stewardship. Since concrete is, volume wise, the most often used man-made building material, enormous savings are potentially achievable, e ven if we make small improvements. REFERENCES 1. DEFRA (2005) Joint UK -Sweden Initiative on Sustainable Construction. www. constructingexcellence.org.uk/uksweden/defra.jsp?level=0 2. Liles, S.(Sam), Liles, S.(Sydney) (2008) Our crumbling infrastructure: How the aging of Americas infrastructure is a homeland security concern. 7 p. www.selil.com/?p=260-61k 3. Frontier India Stategic and Defence News, Analysis, O pion. (2008) $140 billion price tag to repair and modernize Ame ricas bridges. 3 p. www.frontierindia.net/ 140-billion-price-tag-to-repair-and-modernize-americasbridges - 32k 4. Breugel, K. van (2007) Is there a market for self healing cement-based systems in the building industry? Proc. 1 st Int. Conf. on Self Healing Materials, Ed. Schetz & van der Zwaag. Springer, CD, 9 p. 5. Yunovich, M., Thompson, N.G. (2003) Corrosion of highway brid ges: Economic impact and control methodologies. Concr. Int. , Vol. 25, 1, pp. 52-57 6. Flynn, S. (2007) 5 Disasters coming soon if we dont rebuild US infrastruct ure. Popular Mechanics www.popularmechanics.com/science/worst_case_scenarios/4227310.html 7. Mulder, K. (2006) Sustainable Developments for Engineers. Delft University P ress, 288 p. 8. Li, V.C., Yang, E. -H., (2007) Self healing in concrete Materials. In Self Healing Materials. Ed. S. van der Zwaag, Springer, pp 161-193 9. Jonkers, H.M. (2007) Self Healing Concrete: A Biological Approach. In Self Healing Materials. Ed. S. van der Zwaag, Springer, pp 194-204 10. Bedard, C., Sordyl, D. (2007) Concrete summit on sustainable development. Concr. Int., Vol. 29, No. 7, pp. 54-58 11. Long, A.E. (2007) Sustainable bridges through innovative advances. Institution of Civil Engineers, pres ented at Joint ICE and TRF Fellows Lecture. 23 p. www.transportresearchfoundation.co.uk/PDF/lectures/Adrian%20Long%20paper. pdf