Resilient materials for life: Biomimetic self-healing and self-diagnosing concretes

Material degradation of our civil engineering structures is generally inevitable and consequently structures need regular maintenance. However, collaborative research through the M4L collaboration within the UK has developed a suite of biomimetic self-healing concretes that have the ability to adapt and respond to damage without external intervention; as demonstrated in the first UK full-scale field trials on self-healing concrete. Following on from this pioneering work, we are now facilitating through the RM4L programme the creation of ‘smart’ materials that can further self-sense, self-diagnose and self‐heal when subject to a wider range of damage scenarios. This paper describes work that is being carried out to develop self-healing systems suitable for healing cracks in concrete at multiple scales, and due to time-dependent and cyclic loading, and develop concrete that can self-immunise against both physical damage and chemical attack.