On The Role Of Soft Inclusions On The Fracture Behaviour Of Cement Paste

Soft inclusions, such as capsules and other particulate admixtures are increasingly being used in cementitious materials for functional purposes (i.e. self-healing and self-sensing of concrete). Yet, their influence on the fracture behaviour of the material is sometimes overlooked and requires in-depth study for the optimization of mechanical...

Creating Strain Hardening Cementitious Composites (SHCCS) Through Use Of Additively Manufactured Polymeric Meshes As Reinforcement

Strain hardening cementitious composites are a class of cementitious materials showing metal-like (i.e. pseudo-plastic) behavior in tension due to their multiple cracking ability. This is commonly achieved through use of fiber reinforcement (such as PVA) or, similarly, textile reinforcement (TRC). Increasing the ductility is important in...

Compression Behaviors Of Cementitious Cellular Composites With Negative Poisson’s Ratio

Traditionally, mechanical properties of cementitious materials are designed<br/>“chemically”, namely by configuring their mix proportions. Owning to the development of 3D printing technology, “physical” tailoring the meso-structure of cementitious materials to design their mechanical properties becomes possible. In the present study,...

Combined experimental and numerical study of uniaxial compression failure of hardened cement paste at micrometre length scale

The aim of this work is to investigate the mechanical performance of hardened cement paste (HCP) under compression at the micrometre length scale. In order to achieve this, both experimental and numerical approaches were applied. In the experimental part, micrometre sized HCP specimens were fabricated and subjected to uniaxial compression by...

An approach to develop printable strain hardening cementitious composites

New additive manufacturing methods for cementitious materials hold a high potential to increase automation in the construction industry. However, these methods require new materials to be developed that meet performance requirements related to specific characteristics of the manufacturing process. The appropriate characterization methods of...

Experimentally informed fracture modelling of interfacial transition zone at micro-scale

The aim of this work is to predict the micromechanical properties of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) by combining experimental and numerical approaches. In the experimental part, hardened cement paste (HCP) cantilevers (200 μm × 100 μm × 100 μm) attached to a quartzite aggregate were fabricated and tested using micro-dicing saw and...

Optimization of the calcium alginate capsules for self-healing asphalt

It has been demonstrated that calcium alginate capsules can be used as an asphalt healing system by pre-placing rejuvenator (healing agent) into the asphalt mix and releasing the rejuvenator on demand (upon cracking). This healing mechanism relies on the properties of capsules which are determined by the capsule preparation process. In this...

Investigation of the potential use of calcium alginate capsules for self-healing in porous asphalt concrete

Improving the healing capacity of asphalt is proving to be an effective method to prolong the service life of an asphalt pavement. The calcium alginate capsules encapsulating rejuvenator have been developed and proved to provide successful localized crack healing in asphalt mastic. However, it is not known whether this self-healing asphalt...

Flexural response of cementitious mortar bars reinforced by 3D printed polymeric mesh

In order to improve the behaviour of cementitious material under in bending, 3D printed polymeric lattice meshes were used as an alternative to fibre reinforcement. Lattice meshes with different cell sizes and different surface roughness were designed and printed. Plain mortar samples and reinforced samples were casted. After curing, 4-point...

Self-Healing Asphalt Review: From Idea to Practice

In recent decades, researchers have revealed the great healing potential of asphalt and proposed various novel methods to inspire and improve the self-healing capacity of asphalt aimed to prolong the service life of asphalt pavement. In this review, up to date research progresses in induction healing and embedded rejuvenator encapsulation are...

Size effect on splitting strength of hardened cement paste: Experimental and numerical study

Cement paste possesses complex microstructural features including defects/pores over a range of length-scales, from nanometres to millimetres in size. As a consequence, it exhibits different behaviour under loading depending on the size. In this work, cubic specimens in a size range of 1: 400 were produced and tested by a one-sided splitting...

Calcium alginate capsules encapsulating rejuvenator as healing system for asphalt mastic

Researchers have demonstrated that the rejuvenator encapsulation method is a promising autonomic self-healing approach for asphalt pavements, where by the self-healing system improves the healing capacity of an asphalt pavement mix. However, potentially high environmental risk via leaching of hazardous chemicals such as melamine formaldehyde...

Investigation of the potential use of calcium alginate capsules for self-healing in porous asphalt

Incorporating self-healing technology in asphalt pavement has been demonstrated to have great potential to prolong its service life. To this aim, the calcium alginate capsules encapsulating rejuvenator were manufactured and proved to have sufficient thermal stability and mechanical resistance to survive the asphalt production and compaction...