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Crack Prediction and Preventive Repair Methods for the Increasing Sustainability and Safety Requirements of Structures

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2021) | Viewed by 12111

Special Issue Editor

Institute of Materials and Structures, Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia
Interests: high-performance concrete; alkali-activated materials; building materials and their production technologies; self-healing; durability; bio-based building materials; NZE buildings

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid development of advanced technologies and the increasingly sophisticated demand for high-performance working environments have promoted an increasing number of developers to consider adding “intelligence” to civil engineering in order to improve the safety of structures and enhance operational performance.

However, the lack of a satisfactory consensus for the characterization of system intelligence and structured analytical decision models inhibits the ability of developers and practitioners to understand and configure optimum smart structures in a fully informed manner. Little research has been conducted that aids in the decisions and appraisal of smart structures and components in Civil Engineering.

Smart structures of Civil Engineering are a kind of bionic structure system which integrates sensors into civil engineering structures, control systems, and actuators, endowing the structure with intelligent functions and life characteristics such as self-sensing, health self-diagnostics, environmental self-adaptation, and damage recovery for the purpose of enhancing the ability of structural safety, disaster prevention and mitigation, and improving the operational performance of the structure.

The search for optimal methodologies, methods, and models for predicting crack development in multiaxially loaded structures and preventive repair methods, including smart self-healing materials, is justified by the increasing sustainability and safety requirements of structures. The appearance of small cracks in concrete is unavoidable—not necessarily causing risk for structure collapse but certainly accelerating its degradation and diminishing the service life and sustainability of constructions. That loss of performance and functionality promotes increasing investment into maintenance and/or intensive repair/strengthening works. The critical nature of such requirements is signified by their inclusion as priority challenges in the European Research Program.

The focus of this Special Issue is to showcase novel methods, methodologies, and models for the prediction of crack development in structures and appropriate preventive repair methods such as self-healing. The innovative and comparative characterization techniques for self-healing performance verification and modeling of the healing mechanisms is important for the use of self-healing capabilities of concrete by external healing methods as well as for predicting the increase in service life achieved by preventive repair methods.

Research papers investigating damage prediction and preventive repair of structures in real conditions are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Diana Bajare
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • methodologies
  • methods and models for predicting crack development in structure
  • preventive repair methods
  • self-healing
  • self-sensing
  • health self-diagnostics
  • environmental self-adaptation and damage recovery

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 6431 KiB  
Article
Effects of Autogenous and Stimulated Self-Healing on Durability and Mechanical Performance of UHPFRC: Validation of Tailored Test Method through Multi-Performance Healing-Induced Recovery Indices
by Estefanía Cuenca, Francesco Lo Monte, Marina Moro, Andrea Schiona and Liberato Ferrara
Sustainability 2021, 13(20), 11386; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132011386 - 15 Oct 2021
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 2026
Abstract
Chloride diffusion and penetration, and consequently chloride-induced corrosion of reinforcement, are among the most common mechanisms of deterioration of concrete structures, and, as such, the most widely and deeply investigated as well. The benefits of using Ultra-High Performance (Fiber-Reinforced) Concrete—UHP(FR)C to extend the [...] Read more.
Chloride diffusion and penetration, and consequently chloride-induced corrosion of reinforcement, are among the most common mechanisms of deterioration of concrete structures, and, as such, the most widely and deeply investigated as well. The benefits of using Ultra-High Performance (Fiber-Reinforced) Concrete—UHP(FR)C to extend the service life of concrete structures in “chloride attack” scenarios have been addressed, mainly focusing on higher “intrinsic” durability of the aforementioned category of materials due to their compact microstructure. Scant, if nil, information exists on the chloride diffusion and penetration resistance of UHPC in the cracked state, which would be of the utmost importance, also considering the peculiar (tensile) behavior of the material and its high inborn autogenous healing capacity. On the other hand, studies aimed at quantifying the delay in chloride penetration promoted by self-healing, both autogenous and autonomous, of cracked (ordinary) concrete have started being promoted, further highlighting the need to investigate the multidirectional features of the phenomenon, in the direction both parallel and orthogonal to cracks. In this paper, a tailored experimental methodology is presented and validated to measure, with reference to its multidirectional features, the chloride penetration in cracked UHPC and the effects on it of self-healing, both autogenous and stimulated via crystalline admixtures. The methodology is based on micro-core drilling in different positions and at different depths of UHPC disks cracked in splitting and submitted to different exposure/healing times in a 33 g/L NaCl aqueous solution. Its validation is completed through comparison with visual image analysis of crack sealing on the same specimens as well as with the assessment of crack sealing and of mechanical and permeability healing-induced recovery performed, as previously validated by the authors, on companion specimens. Full article
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12 pages, 55546 KiB  
Article
An Acoustic Emission Technique for Crack Modes Classification in Concrete Structures
by Viet Tra, Jae-Young Kim, Inkyu Jeong and Jong-Myon Kim
Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6724; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12176724 - 19 Aug 2020
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2295
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to characterize fracture modes in a concrete structure using an acoustic emission (AE) technique and a data-driven approach. To clarify the damage fracture process, the specimens, which are of reinforced concrete (RC) beams, undergo four-point bending tests. [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study is to characterize fracture modes in a concrete structure using an acoustic emission (AE) technique and a data-driven approach. To clarify the damage fracture process, the specimens, which are of reinforced concrete (RC) beams, undergo four-point bending tests. During bending tests, impulses occurring in the AE signals are automatically detected using a constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) algorithm. For each detected impulse, its acoustic emission parameters such as counts, duration, amplitude, risetime, energy, RA, AF are calculated and studied. The mean and standard deviation values of each of these parameters are computed in every 1-s AE signal and are considered as features demonstrating the damage status of concrete structures. The results revealed that as the damage level in concrete structures grows, these features also change accordingly which can be used to categorize the damage fracture stages. The study also carries out experiments to validate the efficiency of the proposed approaches in terms of visual and qualitative evaluations. Experimental results show that the proposed characterizing model is promising and outstanding with the classification performance in the experimental environment of over 82%. Full article
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24 pages, 6106 KiB  
Article
The Use of Superabsorbent Polymers in High Performance Concrete to Mitigate Autogenous Shrinkage in a Large-Scale Demonstrator
by Laurence De Meyst, Judy Kheir, José Roberto Tenório Filho, Kim Van Tittelboom and Nele De Belie
Sustainability 2020, 12(11), 4741; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12114741 - 10 Jun 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4311
Abstract
High performance concrete (HPC) is a high strength concrete that undergoes a lot of early-age autogenous shrinkage (AS). If shrinkage is restrained, then micro-cracks arise and threaten the durability of the structure. Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) can reduce/mitigate the autogenous shrinkage, due to their [...] Read more.
High performance concrete (HPC) is a high strength concrete that undergoes a lot of early-age autogenous shrinkage (AS). If shrinkage is restrained, then micro-cracks arise and threaten the durability of the structure. Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) can reduce/mitigate the autogenous shrinkage, due to their promising application as internal curing agents. In this paper, large-scale demonstrators were built to investigate the efficiency of SAPs to mitigate autogenous shrinkage in HPC. For this purpose, different measurement techniques were used like embedded fiber optic sensors and demountable mechanical strain gauges, complemented by AS measurements in corrugated tubes and restrained ring tests. The SAP wall showed an AS reduction of 22%, 54%, and 60% at the bottom, middle, and top, respectively, as recorded by the sensors (in comparison with the reference wall (REF)). In the corrugated tubes, mitigation of AS was shown in the SAP mixture, and under restrained conditions, in the ring test, the reference mixture cracked after two days, while the SAP mixture had not cracked at the end of the measurement period (20 days). Cracks were shown on REF wall after one day, while the SAP wall was crack-free. Water flow tests performed on the main crack of the REF wall confirmed that the flow rate is related to the third power of the crack width. All tests showed that SAPs could highly reduce AS in HPC and avoid cracking. Full article
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16 pages, 6415 KiB  
Article
Concrete Early-Age Crack Closing by Autogenous Healing
by Marta Roig-Flores and Pedro Serna
Sustainability 2020, 12(11), 4476; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12114476 - 01 Jun 2020
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 2859
Abstract
Autogenous healing is mainly produced by continuing hydration or carbonation. The aim of this research is to quantify the crack closing produced by autogenous healing for early-age concrete. This healing was evaluated for two crack size levels, 0.1 mm and 0.4 mm, under [...] Read more.
Autogenous healing is mainly produced by continuing hydration or carbonation. The aim of this research is to quantify the crack closing produced by autogenous healing for early-age concrete. This healing was evaluated for two crack size levels, 0.1 mm and 0.4 mm, under three healing conditions: water immersion, a humidity chamber, and wet/dry cycles. Crack closing was evaluated after 7, 14, 28 and 42 days under healing conditions. The internal status of the cracks was verified visually and using phenolphthalein. The results show that specimens stored in the humidity chamber did not experience healing, while specimens under wet/dry cycles and water immersion achieved the complete closing of small-sized cracks (under 0.15 mm). Autogenous healing showed higher speed under wet/dry cycles but higher final efficiency under water immersion. However, the inspection of the interior of the specimens showed that self-closing occurred mostly on the surface, and carbonation in the crack faces was only noticed very near the specimen’s surface. Additionally, this study proposes a preliminary strategy to model autogenous healing in concrete in terms of crack closing. Full article
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