Comparative Study of Self Sealing and Self Healing in Clay and Concrete

Abstract

Study of self-sealing and self-healing in clay is a fascinating topic which can be applied in many fields namely in construction sector or as the underground nuclear waste repository. However, lack of references still hinders the advancement of such field. Meanwhile, more advance researches are available for self-sealing and self-healing in concrete. Therefore, this project is held to find whether any valuable lessons from extensive researches of self-sealing and self-healing in concrete which can be applied to the development of the study in clay. This research is a comparative literature study of self-sealing and self healing mechanism between clay and concrete based on four aspects i.e. hydraulic, thermal, chemical and mechanical which based on the published papers from scientific journals and books. In terms of hydraulic aspect, hydraulic gradient plays an important role for sealing and healing mechanism in both clay and concrete. For thermal aspect, hydraulic conductivity is not affected by the temperature increased in clay while sealing and healing rate are improved for the similar condition in concrete. In chemical aspect, high pH environment increases sealing rate of concrete while high salinity decreases the capacity of sealing and healing of clay. For mechanical aspect, both concrete and clay experience a decreasing hydraulic conductivity under increasing confining stress. All of the results showed that both clay and concrete experience self-sealing and self healing mechanism with different influences by each aforementioned aspect.