Self Healing Concrete: A Biological Approach

Henk M Jonkers
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering and GeoSciences/Microlab, Stevinweg 1,
The Netherlands
E-mail: h.m.jonkers@tudelft.nl

1 An Introduction to Concrete

Concrete can be considered as a kind of artificial rock with properties more or less
similar to certain natural rocks. As it is strong, durable, and relatively cheap, concrete
is, since almost two centuries, the most used construction material worldwide, which
can easily be recognized as it has changed the physiognomy of rural areas. However,
due to the heterogeneity of the composition of its principle components, cement,
water, and a variety of aggregates, the properties of the final product can widely
vary. The structural designer therefore must previously establish which properties are
important for a specific application and must choose the correct composition of the
concrete ingredients in order to ensure that the final product applies to the previously
set standards. Concrete is typically characterized by a high-compressive strength, but
unfortunately also by a rather low-tensile strength. However, through the application
of steel or other material reinforcements, the latter can be compensated for as such
reinforcements can take over tensile forces.
Modern concrete is based on Portland cement, a hydraulic cement patented by
Joseph Aspdin in the early 19th century. Already in Roman times hydraulic cements,
made from burned limestone and volcanic earth, slowly replaced the widely used
non-hydraulic cements, which were based on burned limestone as main ingredient.
When limestone is burned (or “calcined”) at a temperature between 800 and 900◦ C,
a process that drives off bound carbon dioxide (CO2 ), lime (calcium oxide; CaO)
is produced. Lime, when brought into contact with water, reacts to form portlandite
(Ca(OH)2 ) which can further react with CO2 , which in turn forms back into calcite
(CaCO3 ), or limestone, the pre-burning starting material. However, a major draw-
back of this non-hydraulic cement is that it will not set under water and, moreover,
its reaction products portlandite and limestone are relatively soluble, and thus will
deteriorate rapidly in wet and/or acidic environments. In contrast, portland cement
produces, upon reaction with water, a much harder and insoluble material that will
also set under water. For portland cement production a source of calcium, silicon, alu-
minum, and iron is needed and therefore usually limestone, clay, some bauxite, and
iron ore are burned in a kiln at temperatures up to 1, 500◦ C. The cement clinker pro-
duced is mainly composed of the minerals alite (3CaO.SiO2 ), belite (2CaO.SiO2 ),
aluminate (3CaO.Al2 O3 ), and ferrite (4CaO.Al2 O3 .Fe2 O3 ), which all yield spe-
cific hydration products with different characteristics upon reaction with water.

S. van der Zwaag (ed.), Self Healing Materials. An Alternative Approach to 20 Centuries 195
of Materials Science, 195–204.

c 2007 Springer.
196 H.M. Jonkers

The contribution of these clinker minerals to the composition of general-purpose

portland cement in weight percentage is typically 50%, 24%, 11%, and 8% respec-
tively. Important characteristics of clinker minerals are reaction rate and contribution
to final strength of the product. For example, of the two calcium silicates, alite is
the most reactive and contributes to early strength, while the slower-reacting belite
contributes more to longer-term strength. Aluminate contributes to early strength as
its hydration reaction is fast but it also generates much heat. The final properties of
cement-based materials can thus vary widely as they strongly depend on the mineral
composition of the cement used and therefore, different types of cement, each suit-
able for specific applications, are produced. Quantitatively most important hydration
product of general-purpose portland cement is calcium silicate hydrate (C–S–H), an
amorphous mineral somewhat resembling the natural mineral tobermorite. A sec-
ondary reaction product is calcium hydroxide (portlandite), which together with the
very soluble sodium and potasium oxides (Na2 O and K2 O) also present in portland
cement, contribute to the high alkalinity of the concrete’s pore fluid (pH ≈ 13). The
high matrix pH is important in structural concrete as it protects the embedded steel
reinforcement from corrosion. The protective oxidized thin layer of Fe3+ oxides
and oxyhydroxides on the reinforcement steel (the passivation film) rapidly degrade
when the matrix pH drops below 9, leading to further oxidation and deterioration of
the concrete structure due to expansion reactions and loss of strength. Corrosion of
the steel reinforcement is in fact one of the major causes limiting the durability, or
lifetime, of concrete structures. For further and more detailed information on general
concrete properties the reader is referred to Reinhardt (1985) and Neville (1996).

2 Concrete Durability, Deterioration, and Self Healing

Properties

A variety of additives or replacements of cement can be applied in order to improve

the durability of the final concrete product. Also certain industrial waste or recycled
materials can be used to improve the sustainability, or environmental friendliness,
of concrete and some even improve certain properties. The production of cement
is high-energy consuming as raw materials are burned at 1, 500◦ C, a process that
contributes to a significant amount of atmospheric CO2 release worldwide. Thus, for
both economical and environmental reasons, cement production and use should be
minimized. Examples of industrial waste products, which can partly replace and even
improve cement properties, are fly ash, blast furnace slag, and silica fume. Fly ash, a
waste product from coal-burning power plants, is a source of reactive silica and can
substitute 35–75% of cement in the concrete mix. Application of fly ash increases
concrete strength as it reduces the required water/cement ratio and also improves
resistance against chemical attack as it decreases the matrix permeability. Similarly,
silica fume from the silicon industry and blast furnace slag from steel industries can
partially replace cement in the concrete mix, as these are sources of reactive silica and