Report of RILEM TC 281-CCC: outcomes of a round robin on the resistance to accelerated carbonation of Portland, Portland-fly ash and blast-furnace blended cements

Many (inter)national standards exist to evaluate the resistance of mortar and concrete to carbonation. When a carbonation coefficient is used for performance comparison of mixtures or service life prediction, the applied boundary conditions during curing, preconditioning and carbonation play a crucial role, specifically when using latent...

Understanding the carbonation of concrete with supplementary cementitious materials: a critical review by RILEM TC 281-CCC

Blended cements, where Portland cement clinker is partially replaced by supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), provide the most feasible route for reducing carbon dioxide emissions associated with concrete production. However, lowering the clinker content can lead to an increasing risk of neutralisation of the concrete pore solution and...

Design and testing of tubular polymeric capsules for self-healing of concrete

Polymeric healing agents have proven their efficiency to heal cracks in concrete in an autonomous way. However, the bottleneck for valorisation of self-healing concrete with polymeric healing agents is their encapsulation. In the present work, the suitability of polymeric materials such as poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polystyrene (PS)...

Simulation-Aided Design of Tubular Polymeric Capsules for Self-Healing Concrete

Polymeric capsules can have an advantage over glass capsules used up to now as proof-of-concept carriers in self-healing concrete. They allow easier processing and afford the possibility to fine tune their mechanical properties. Out of the multiple requirements for capsules used in this context, the capability of rupturing when crossed by a...

Design of polymeric capsules for autonomous healing of cracks in cementitious materials

Now, most of the capsules used to contain polymeric healing agents in self-healing concrete, are made of glass. However, glass capsules cannot be mixed in concrete and are therefore placed manually into the moulds during concrete casting in laboratory tests. This represents a major drawback for an eventual industrialisation. In this study,...

ICSHM 2013: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Self-Healing Materials, Ghent, Belgium, 16-20 June 2013

Symposium organised by Ghent University, Department of Structural Engineering and Delft University of Technology, Aerospace Structures & Materials. Materials play an extremely important role in our lives. These materials may be of a very different nature ranging from metals over concrete to polymers and composite materials. They all have in...

Self-healing of thermal cracks in sandwich panels

Sandwich panels are prefabricated, insulated concrete wall elements, which are sensitive to thermal cracking due to their composition (concrete outer cladding – insulation – concrete inner cladding). During hot days, the temperature of the outer concrete layer can rise up to ~ 60°C and the temperature difference between inner and outer layer...