Self-sensing and self-healing 'Smart' cement-based materials - A review of the State of the Art

The paper reviews recent research on self-sensing and self-healing cement-based materials as part of Smart Civil Engineering Infrastructures. Incorporated in Structural Health Monitoring systems, these materials are likely to play an important role in making future infrastructure robust, resilient and sustainable. Smart or intelligent cement-based materials have attracted extensive attention in the last decade or so with strong implications for improving structural durability and service life. Additions of carbon fibres, carbon nano-tubes and various nano-powders giving cement-based matrix electrical properties used for self-sensing have been known for over a decade and a half. In addition, the strong capacity of Strain-Hardening Cement-based Composites (SHCC) for autogenous healing is aided by tight crack-width control, and the application of different mineral and bio-additive based materials to accelerate autonomic self-healing of cracks have been noted with great interest. Monitoring of the durability of concrete structures is often neglected in favour of the structural safety against catastrophic failure. The present review summarizes the latest literature with a focus on identifying and documenting key innovations and field applications, and the performance based design approach to tailoring material solutions for long service life, sustainability and resiliency. Smart infrastructures including Smart Buildings and Smart Cities are being constructed at an increasing pace around the world. One of the major driving force is the explosion of low-cost Internet-enabled sensors as part of the new wave of ‘Internet of Things (IoT)’. At a fraction of the cost that is being invested into the latest IoT products for incrementally more comfortable living space, a much more resilient and sustainable infrastructure can be ensured by investing in commercialization of self-sensing and self-healing materials. For this to happen the research community need to identify the gaps between the ‘Industry Pull’ and ‘Technology Push’ first instead of inventing solutions waiting for a problem.

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