Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting II Alexander et al (eds)

2009 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-46850-3

229
Using natural wood fibers to self heal concrete
M.R. de Rooij, S. Qian, H. Liu, W.F. Gard & J.W.G. van de Kuilen
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT: Changing from damage prevention to damage management, thereby allowing some cracks in a
structure as long as the cracks self-repair over time, is the basic concept behind self-healing materials. Follow-
ing nature, where wood fibers allow for both transport and bonding possibilities, this paper describes various
options to apply wood fibers. Preliminary results on how to obtain single wood fibers and initial experiments
on concrete crack width are presented. It is shown that the boundary conditions for a successful application of
wood fibers as self-healing carriers can be met. However, it is also shown that many very practical obstacles in
the manufacturing of self healing concrete still need to be cleared.
1.2 Application to concrete materials
In all modesty, it should be mentioned that self-
healing is not something very new in materials
science. The self-healing capability has been a prop-
erty which was sometimes there by coincidence
rather than intentionally imposed. A well known
example is the mortar used by the Romans for the
construction of their buildings and large infra-
structural works (Riccardi, 1998). The exceptional
durability of these structures is the consequence of
micro-cracks closing spontaneously due to a chemi-
cal reaction between the mortar and the moisture in
the air leading to controlled dissolution and repre-
cipitation (Sanchez-Moral, 2004).
Hence, it is fair to say that concrete-like materi-
als have a good track record for self-healing to start
from. However, the previous example also highlights
one of the key parameters for successful self-healing:
repair material should be transported from the bulk
material to the place of damage (the crack). It is in
this process part that some of the developments in
self-healing materials are taking place. Glass vials
with repair agent, for example, have been a reported
option (Dry, 1994). Another option is pursued in
this paper focusing on the transport properties of
wood fibers. The paper describes various options
to choose wood fibers, preliminary results on how
to obtain single wood fibers and initial experiments
on crack width. First however, some boundary con-
ditions for concrete are discussed based on earlier
research work.
1 CONCEPT INSTRUCTIONS
1.1 The concepts of self-healing
Materials science has improved qualities of materials
tremendously by dedicated engineering work. When,
for example, a material is not strong enough, the
cause will be identified, composition and processing
of the material altered, until it results in a material
being stronger, hence having improved properties.
Such success stories can be identified for almost
every property of a material. However, in this line
of improvement the basic starting point has almost
always been to raise the levels, set a new record (in
our example make it stronger).
Width hindsight, all strategies to improve the
strength and reliability of materials developed over the
past 20 centuries are ultimately based on the paradigm
of damage prevention, i.e. the materials are designed
and prepared in such a way that the formation and
extension of damage as a function of load and/or time is
postponed as much as possible (Van der Zwaag, 2007).
Damage is defined here as the presence of micro- or
macroscopic cracks not being present initially.
However, in recent years it has been realized that
an alternative strategy can be followed to make mate-
rials effectively stronger and more reliable through
damage management, i.e. materials have a built in
capability to repair the damage incurred during use.
Cracks are allowed to form, but the material itself is
capable of repairing the crack and restoring the func-
tionality of the material. The material is self-healing.
230
2 EARLIER RESEARCH WORK
2.1 Healing of early age cracks
The first research work on concrete material that was
related to self-healing materials at Delft University of
Technology, consisted of crack healing of early age
cracks in concrete (Ter Heide, 2005; 2007). In this
study, three point bending tests were performed on
prismatic concrete specimens to fracture the speci-
mens. These tests were performed between 20 to
72 hours after casting, producing crack (mouth) open-
ings of the crack between 20150 m. After cracking
the samples were stored in different relative humidity
(RH) environments: under water or in climate cham-
bers with 95% or 60% RH. Furthermore, the influ-
ence of compression stresses closing the crack was
investigated. Stresses of 0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 N/mm
2

have been applied.
After two weeks the samples were taken from
their different conditions and tested again under three
point bending, this time until failure. The results of
these tests were compared with reference samples not
being fractured. These reference samples were loaded
in two steps: first (after two weeks) a predetermined
crack was made, similar to the fractured specimen at
age of one day. Next, the specimens were unloaded.
Then, immediately following this, the specimens
were loaded again until failure. By now comparing
the results of the healed specimens with the unhealed
references samples, the following conclusions could
be drawn:
Cracks do heal under the conditions that the cracks
are made at an early age and the cracks are closed
again (a compressive stress is applied) and the
specimens are stored under water.
The amount of compressive stress does not seem
to influence the strength recovery. The results indi-
cate that a compressive stress is needed to close
the crack, but once the two crack faces touch each
other, or the distance between the crack faces is
small enough, crack healing can happen.
With increasing age of the specimen at the moment
of cracking, a decrease in strength recovery is
found. This seems to be related to the degree of
hydration at the age of the specimen when the first
crack is made.
The width of the crack does not seem to have an
influence on the strength recovery, as long as the
crack faces can come close enough to each other.
Crack healing is only observed when the cracked
specimens are stored under water.
From this research it became clear that self-healing
is possible, but the crack faces should be close
together. In other words, the crack width should not
be too large.
2.2 Keeping crack width small
Concrete does not posses much capacity to take up
tensile forces. Therefore, the concrete normally used
in practice is almost always reinforced concrete. The
steel reinforcement bars are meant to take up tensile
forces, but the amount and location are also chosen to
distribute cracks and thus keep crack widths small.
Keeping crack widths small becomes more and
more an objective rather than an important side issue,
a next level can be reached by using fiber reinforced
concrete. Research has shown that the most funda-
mental property of a fiber reinforced cementitious
material is the fiber bridging property across a matrix
(Lin & Li, 1997). This is the average tensile stress
transmitted across a crack with uniform crack open-
ing as envisioned in a uniaxial tensile specimen.
Naturally there will be a point of optimization
between the requested different properties and e.g.
the amount, dimensions and properties of fibers nec-
essary to fulfill these requirements. A group that has
performed much research in materials optimization
by microstructural tailoring is the group of prof. Li
(Li, 2003). Through his research he has developed
Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) over
the last decade since its invention in the early 1990s.
ECC is a component of microstructure tailoring to
its extreme, showing tensile strain capacity of 5%
(Li, 2001), approximately 500 times larger than that
of normal concrete, or even regular fiber reinforced
concrete.
When an ECC structural element is loaded (flex-
ure or shear) to beyond the elastic range, the inelastic
deformation is associated with microcracking. The
microcrack width is dependent on the type of fiber
and interface properties. However, it is generally less
than 100 micron when PVA fiber is used.
Figure 1. Crack width development in ECC with 2%
REC15 fibers (Li, 2003).
231
Figure 1 shows the crack width development as a
function of tensile strain in a uniaxial tension speci-
men. The crack width first increases, but reaches
a more or less steady state value beyond about 1%
strain. For this specimen using 2% of REC15 fiber
with 0.8% surface coating content, the crack width
stabilizes at about 80 micron.
3 CONCRETE AND WOOD
3.1 Wood fiber concept
In this research, natural lignified bio-fibers which
could come from e.g. fir, larch, pine, water lily of
lianas, were originally thought of as possible carri-
ers for repair substances to heal cracks in cementi-
tious materials. Lignified fibers have the advantage
of being environmentally friendly and available in a
large variety of dimensions, ranging in length from
30 m up to 150 m and in diameter from 5 m up to
800 m. These fibers can store repair substances in
their natural holes and also use the cell wall structure
to host nano-particles and release them when trig-
gered for damage repair. The cell lumen for instance
can store up to 0.5 mm
3
per milliliter fiber length.
Hence the wood fibers would then serve similar to
the glass vial test systems reported in other research
(Dry, 1994).
Differently than the glass vial set-up, lignified
wood fibers can be modified by impregnation meth-
ods in order to further customize fiber properties,
thus increasing e.g. fiber brittleness or the release
mechanism through the fiber wall. An example of
wood-tissue with lignified fibers as carrier for self-
healing material is given in Figure 2.
In ongoing research the actual realization of the
above mentioned possibilities of wood fibers for heal-
ing of concrete are investigated. The first preliminary
results are presented here.
3.2 Choice of wood fibers
Building from the knowledge of ECC material some
ideal desirable fiber properties could be formulated
to keep crack width small enough for self-healing to
have a chance. Ideally the fiber should have a length
around 812 mm with good processibility and ade-
quate bonding capacities. The diameter should ideally
be less than 100 m. For aspect ratio we would be
looking for something like 100200.
This still leaves a number of options open, because
in regular fibers for fiber reinforced concrete one
does not consider regularly on lumen volume, and if
the fibers should be in bundles or single fibers. Fur-
thermore, the chemical treatment to prepare the fibers
Figure 2. Indication of lignified fibers as carriers for self-
healing material.
for containing self-healing agent could seriously alter
the fiber properties. However, this latter argument
also provides opportunities to change fiber properties
which do not exactly match our wish list.
Taking a first inventory on the physical and
mechanical properties of a wide variety of fibers
resulted in the overview presented in Table 1. For
comparison also some synthetic fiber values are men-
tioned. It was concluded that the diameter of single
fibers would not be a problem in theory to meet our
ideal desirable value. It actually might even be a little
on the small size. For the length the variety of values
is rather wide, which means that the check whether or
not our desired value would be obtained, depends on
the actual choice of material.
Upon choosing a specific wood fiber for further
research, the information in Table 1 is valuable start-
ing information, but getting the fibers out of their
natural position in abundant quantity to be mixed
through concrete, is equally important. In our first
inventory in this direction the choices came down to
either wood pulp, containing damaged single fiber
cell parts or wood chips from wood sawing mills.
Neither of those two options would be suitable for our
preliminary research.
Next, veneer wood was pursued. This wood is basi-
cally peeled off from the tree stem in very thin layers,
in this case less than one millimeter thick. As a first
try-out we have looked at Oregon pine, ash, beech,
232
cherry, koto, maple, oak, utile/mahagony and walnut
wood. Based on the amount of fibers present, the first
choice has been made for Oregon pine to study fur-
ther. The determined size of lumen in this wood is
about 40 m. A cross-section of this wood is shown
in Figure 3. Tests are now set up to investigate this
fiber further.
3.3 Parallel preliminary experiments
While searching for the wood fiber type to be used
in future research, preliminary experiments on pro-
ducing concrete with natural fibers were under-
taken in a parallel research program. The first tests
described here were set up with sisal fiber, because
that was readily available in large enough quantities
to produce mortar specimens. These tests should give
insight in the workability problems that could occur,
as well as distribution of fibers through the mortar.
Furthermore, it would also give a first idea on crack
distribution and crack width.
Again tests were designed from an ECC starting
point. The specimens should be cracked in a 4 point
bending test. The crack width should be kept small by
so called bridging fibers. For this purpose we chose
PVA fibers, because of the good experience in ECC.
The self-healing fibers should be represented by sisal
for the time being. The produced mortar mix compo-
sition is given in Table 2.
Specimens were demoulded after one day and then
cured in air (20C/65% RH). At 28 days the speci-
mens were fractured using 4-point bending tests.
After fracturing the number of cracks and the average
crack width was determined. The tests were repeated
five times.
Results showed that the number of cracks ranged
from 3 to 7, with an average crack width ranging
from 120 m to 7080 m. Most noticeable was that
the fibers were well distributed, but that they had not
been broken, see Figure 4. When these fibers have
to repair the cracks in concrete they should break in
future experiments, in order to be able to deliver the
repair agent. Further research is moving to establish
how weak the healing fibers should be in order to
break upon fracture of the sample.
Figure 3. Cross-section of Oregon pine wood.
Table 2. Mix composition of preliminary mortar tests with
natural fiber.
Amount
Component Gram
By
volume
Portland cement 500
Sand 400
Fly ash (type F) 600
Water 300
Superplasticizer 20
PVA fiber 1% (v/v)
Sisal fiber 2% (v/v)
Table 1. Overview of first inventory on physical and
mechanical properties of possible fibers.
Fibers
Length
(mm)
Diameter
(m)
Tensile strength
(MPa)
Synthetic
PE 12.7 38 2700
PVA 812 39 1620
PP 6 12 770880
Stem fibers
Flax 27.436.1 17.821.6 500900
Hemp 8.314.1 17.022.8 310750
J ute 1.93.2 15.920.7 250350
Ramie 60250 28.135.0 870
Hibiscus 1601500 40350
Sugarcane 0.82.8 6.626 170290
Bamboo 2.8 1040 350500
Deciduous
wood
0.32.5 1045
Coniferous
wood
1.09.0 1560 700
Seed-hair
fibers
Cotton 1265 1220 300600
Coir 0.91.2 16.219.5 130175
Leaf fibers
Sisal 1.83.1 18.323.7 250550
Banana 2.25.5 1830 530750
233
Figure 4. Sisal fibers in crack appear to be unbroken.
3.4 Future steps: filling fibers
As a future outlook on this very early research path,
the next mark is getting extracted fibers from Oregon
pine filled with water and then sealed with a coating
to keep the water inside. Water is used as filling mate-
rial as a first basis. The focus will be on application
of a coating that can contain the future self-healing
agent inside the fiber. This coating should be strong
enough to contain the healing agent during the vig-
orous mixing process of concrete, but should on the
other hand also be or become weak enough to frac-
ture when needed for repair is at hand. In addition, the
pull-out strength should remain larger than the fiber
breaking strength. It is our current philosophy that by
applying a coating we alter the fiber properties in the
process so much, that the fiber will break upon final
use in concrete when a crack passes along.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this article a very first inside look has been pre-
sented on the possible concepts of using natural
fibers to self-heal concrete. Preliminary literature
research has shown that the boundary conditions for
a successful application of wood fibers in concrete
can be met. However, it has also been observed that
many and also very practical obstacles in the research
still have to be cleared. To name a few that have been
mentioned throughout the article:
obtaining (bundles of) fibers in enough quantity to
perform the research,
making a mixture composition in which the cracks
remain small enough for self-healing to have a
chance,
producing fibers that break even with these very
small crack widths,
producing a coating that keeps the repair agent in
the fiber during mixing of the concrete and during
undamaged service life of the concrete,
producing a coating that is not so strong, that it will
prevent the fiber to break.
As we know it is very well possible to manipulate
the properties of the natural fibers as much as it is
possible to tune the properties of the future coating on
the fiber, we are looking forward to the challenging
research in the new field of self-healing materials.
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