Design of Triggering Mechanisms for Self-healing Concrete:a Review

Over the past two decades,the realization of self-healing in concrete has attracted considerable attention from the research community as a technology to improve the durability and stability of structures. Among others,self-healing of concrete by incorporating various encapsulated additives is shown to be an effective and efficient way. In the design of autonomous self-healing strategy,the triggering mechanism is of great importance as it governs the effectiveness and efficiency of the self-healing system. This review provides a comprehensive summary of triggering mechanisms applied in self-healing concrete covering the following categories,i. e. mechanical triggering,ion triggering,environmental factors triggering and active triggering. After explaining the basic concept and some applications for each triggering mechanism,various triggering mechanisms were compared and analyzed to provide insight toward future developments. In addition,to standardize the evaluation of various triggering mechanisms,the existing triggering mechanisms were evaluated according to three basic criteria,triggering efficiency,application scenarios and limitations. © 2024 Cailiao Daobaoshe/ Materials Review. All rights reserved.