Self Healing Bendable Concrete On Walls

Li s self healing concrete is based on a material he came up with in 1990 called engineered cementitious composite.

Self healing bendable concrete on walls.

It is an incredible invention. Amazingly enough li says he s invented self healing concrete. Self healing is possible because the material is designed to bend and crack in narrow hairlines rather than break and split in wide gaps like traditional concrete. It s flexible it ca bend and if it cracks it can heal itself.

Benjamin wylie collegiate professor of civil engineering and a professor of materials science and engineering. The engineered cement composite is designed to bend. It s like if you get a small cut on your hand your body can heal itself said victor li a professor of materials science and engineering at the university. It cracks in narrow hairlines rather than in wide gaps as does standard concrete.

The bending strength or tensile capacity of flexible concrete is in the range of 10 to 15 mpa and compressive strength is upto 70 mpa. It has a self healing property as the cement particles make reaction with the rain water and makes some complex product that expands and fill the microcracks that are developed in the flexible concrete. It has some of the same ingredients as portland cement except the coarser bits. Flexible concrete gains self healing property which helps to fill the microcracks by a complex product that is formed by the reaction of cement with the rainwater.

The ultimate tensile strain of bendable concrete can go up to 3 to 5. Self healing concrete can make structures such as roads and bridges more durable. The michigan department of transportation has a performance target. Bendable concrete also can adjust its own thermal capacity so that it stores more heat when the outside temperature is high keeping building interiors cool.

The strain capacity of flexible concrete is three hundred times greater than the conventional concrete. Bio concrete as he calls it is normal concrete with special bacteria mixed in it. Instead of being so rigid as to crack in a large gaping manner the concrete will crack much more subtly throughout the material. The new concrete works by bending with the pressure caused by such problems as freeze thaw cycles.

The material in question is called bio concrete born out of a collaboration between microbiologist henk jonkers and concrete technologist eric schlangen the cost saving self healing material. The material was developed in the lab of victor li the e.