Developing Carbon based Bio Self-healing concrete for autogenous healing of cracks in paved surfaces

Abstract

The versatile characteristics of concrete make it a most widely used construction material all over the world. Evolution in various grades of concrete has started in early 1900s. The available normal grades of concrete were used in normal construction to provide adequate required strength. However the brittle behavior renders low strength and durability. With development, the smart and durable cement based materials have become the integral part of increasing research interest. The enhanced mechanical properties, durability and monitoring of the serviceability of structures through self-sensing and self-healing is becoming vital in this new era development of construction industry. The addition of carbonaceous material i.e Graphene, Carbon powder, Carbon Nano Tubes etc produce the sensing properties in the cement based materials. The autonomous self-healing due to various bio additives and minerals has been reported with concern. However, carbonaceous nano/micro inert particles synthesized through the pyrolysis of agriculture and industrial wastes offer a very cost- effective alternate to the commercially available carbon-based materials (carbon fibers, carbon nanotubes, graphene and graphene oxide etc). In this study, nano/micro platelets of commercially available raw graphite and carbonaceous nano/micro inert particles synthesized through the pyrolysis of waste tyre will be announced in the concrete to examine its effects on the mechanical and healing properties of resulting matrix. Furthermore, Graphite nano/micro platelets (GNMPs) and pyrolyzed Bio-char will also be used as an immobilizer for carrying bacterial solution into cementitious system to make it self-healing cementitious system. The construction industry underpins all other commerce directly and indirectly around the globe. The growing demand of sustainable infrastructure is also adding to its importance; thus, demanding high performance construction material. Specifically, a global infrastructure investment of 3.3 trillion USD per year is needed in the years from 2016 through 2030 (Woetzel, 2016). The construction industry is the largest user of raw materials and it causes 25-40% of the carbon emissions (WEF, 2017). It is estimated that American existing infrastructure will need almost 2.4 trillion US dollars in additional investment for restoration and rehabilitation by 2025 (ASCE, 2017). This alarming forecast warns the countries with swift infrastructure development over last 2-3 decades, such as China, India, Russia & Brazil to prepare for the load of upkeep of existing infrastructures. To cope up with these challenges, the need of High performance materials rises which can give high strength, ductile self-sensing & self-repaired characteristics. Combined with modern structural health monitoring techniques that use advanced sensors, remote data acquisition systems and sophisticated decision-making algorithms based on real time data analytic, self-sensing, self-healing and durable concrete materials can revolutionize the way civil engineering infrastructures are planned, built, maintained and demolished.