Self-sealing of cracks in concrete using superabsorbent polymers
By H.X.D. Lee, H. Wong, N. Buenfeld. 2016
276 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Cracks in concrete can self-heal when exposed to prolonged wetting, but this is limited to narrow cracks. In practice, cracks > 0.2 mm cause leakage and impair performance of structures. The potential of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) to self-seal such cracks was investigated via transport experiments, microscopy and modelling. Forty samples containing SAP and through-thickness cracks were subjected to 0.12 wt.% NaCl at 4 m/m pressure gradient to simulate groundwater seepage. Results show that SAP can re-swell and seal cracks, for example in the case of 0.3 mm cracks reducing peak flow rate and total flow by 85% and 98% respectively. Increasing SAP dosage accelerates sealing, but imparts a strength penalty and this limits practical applications. Modelling suggests that the effectiveness of SAP can be enhanced by increasing its re-swelling ratio and particle size, and depressing its initial swelling. These variables increase the SAP exposed in a crack and the gel volume available to seal it.
Subfields: Civil and Structural Engineering
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/39735849e83df41744efd654565504bdcbe461f3
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In Civil and Structural Engineering
Citations in the corpus
- Effect of alkalinity and calcium concentration of pore solution on the swelling and ionic exchange of superabsorbent polymers in cement paste (2018, background): “The ionic groups of the SAP affect when the absorbed water is released for internal curing application [23, 27], how ingress of external fluids influence its re-swelling in crack sealing [13] and how repeated swelling/shrinkage influences long-term performance.”