Development of a self- healing skin for more durable concrete structures. In: 3 rd International Conference on Self-Healing Materials

The development of a self-healing skin for concrete is investigated as an innovative system and an alternative structural solution for more durable constructions with longer service life. Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) and fibre reinforced Inorganic Phosphate Cement (IPC) skins are capable to reduce the width of the cracks occurred during loading. IPC and TRC component could be used as a thin ply to cover and reinforce concrete elements (beams) in areas where damage and crack propagation is expected. During the loading of a concrete specimen, cracks firstly appear at the matrix of the composite. In order to achieve self-healing(SH) procedures at the regions of damage of the skin and protect the RC element from crack propagation hollow glass fibres (HGF) filled with healing agents (resin and catalyst/hardener) can be integrated in the cover. At a critical crack width the HGF break and release agent. Bleeding of healing agent into the crack bridges the two sides of failure.To monitor and become aware of internal damage, cracking process, rate of degradation and recovery of the mechanical properties after healing (future work) Non Destructive Techniques as Acoustic Emission and Digital Image Correlation are used.