TY - JOUR
T1 - Numerical investigation of crack self-sealing in cement-based composites with superabsorbent polymers
AU - Rodríguez, C. Romero
AU - Figueiredo, S. Chaves
AU - Deprez, M.
AU - Snoeck, D.
AU - Schlangen, E.
AU - Šavija, B.
N1 - Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Recently the concept of crack self-sealing has been investigated as a method to prevent degradation and/or loss of functionality of cracked concrete elements. To obtain self-sealing effect in the crack, water swelling admixtures such as superabsorbent polymers (SAP) are added into the cementitious mix. In order to design such self-sealing systems in an efficient way, a three-dimensional mesoscale numerical model is proposed to simulate capillary absorption of water in sound and cracked cement-based materials containing SAP. The numerical results yield the moisture content distribution in cracked and sound domain, as well as the absorption and swelling of SAP embedded in the matrix and in the crack. The performance of the model was validated by using experimental data from the literature, as well as experimentally-informed input parameters. The validated model was then used to investigate the role of SAP properties and dosage in cementitious mixtures, on the water penetration into the material from cracks. Furthermore different crack widths were considered in the simulations. The model shows good agreement with experimental results. From the numerical investigation guidelines are suggested for the design of the studied composites.
AB - Recently the concept of crack self-sealing has been investigated as a method to prevent degradation and/or loss of functionality of cracked concrete elements. To obtain self-sealing effect in the crack, water swelling admixtures such as superabsorbent polymers (SAP) are added into the cementitious mix. In order to design such self-sealing systems in an efficient way, a three-dimensional mesoscale numerical model is proposed to simulate capillary absorption of water in sound and cracked cement-based materials containing SAP. The numerical results yield the moisture content distribution in cracked and sound domain, as well as the absorption and swelling of SAP embedded in the matrix and in the crack. The performance of the model was validated by using experimental data from the literature, as well as experimentally-informed input parameters. The validated model was then used to investigate the role of SAP properties and dosage in cementitious mixtures, on the water penetration into the material from cracks. Furthermore different crack widths were considered in the simulations. The model shows good agreement with experimental results. From the numerical investigation guidelines are suggested for the design of the studied composites.
KW - Capillary absorption of water
KW - Cement-based materials
KW - Cracks
KW - Lattice model
KW - Self-sealing
KW - Superabsorbent polymers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071400532&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2019.103395
DO - 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2019.103395
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85071400532
VL - 104
JO - Cement and Concrete Composites
JF - Cement and Concrete Composites
SN - 0958-9465
M1 - 103395
ER -