Self-healing Concrete

1. Self-healing Concrete Investigator’s Name – Arijit Bose, Students – Michelle Pelletier (G), Triparna Bhattacharya (G), Sam Matus (UG), Amy Gibson (UG); School - URI • Purpose/ Relevance: Develop construction material (concrete) that can recover mechanical strength after initial damage • Innovation: Provide capsules containing healing material within concrete that break when crack passes through it, releasing healing material into crack and partially healing it. • This Year outcome: Demonstrated 25% recovery of maximum loading to failure after initial failure. Controls gave recovery of less than 10%. • Long-range impact: Improved lifetime for concrete; reduced environmental impact as concrete processing releases CO2. (a) (b) Load versus displacement (extension) for flexural strength characterization of control (a) and capsule-containing (b) samples.

2. Self-healing Concrete Investigator’s Name – Arijit Bose, Students – Michelle Pelletier (G), Triparna Bhattacharya (G), Sam Matus (UG), Amy Gibson (UG); School - URI • Education Students Present & Graduate:Michelle Pelletier (MS 2010), Triparna Bhattacharya (MS 2012), Sam Matus (BS/BA 2011), Amy Gibson (BS/BA 2011) • Papers/Patents/Presentations:Self-healing concrete with a microencapsulated healing agent, M. Pelletier, A. Shukla, R. Brown, A. Bose, submitted to Cement and Concrete Research, February 2011. • Self healing Concrete – Provisional US patent 61358435 filed on June 25, 2010. • Self healing Concrete, IMPLAST 2010, Providence, RI, October 2010. • Transition to Industry or Collaboration with Industry: Working currently with BASF, W.R. Grace, CEMEX (Switzerland). Foresight Technologies is handling all interactions with industry • Next Year: Role of capsule loading and size on yield strength; characterization of capsule containing sample under dynamic loading conditions; multiple load-release cycle (fatigue) characterization