The contribution provides an overview of a combined experimental-numerical study on vascular self-healing systems for cementitious composite materials. The work aimed to bridge the gap between numerical and experimental investigations for this type of self-healing system and to provide a…
The contribution provides an overview of a combined experimental-numerical study on vascular self-healing systems for cementitious composite materials. The work aimed to bridge the gap between numerical and experimental investigations for this type of self-healing system and to provide a full set of data for developing, calibrating and validating a comprehensive numerical model for these materials. The study investigated both healing-agent transport and mechanical damage-healing processes, including healing agent curing. The new coupled model described in this paper employs elements with embedded strong discontinuities to simulate cracks and mechanical healing behaviour. A damage-healing constitutive model has been developed that uses the concept of a diffuse healing surface within a crack. This mechanical model is coupled to discrete and continuum flow models that simulate healing agent transport. The transport model accounts for pressurised and capillary flow, as well as the change of flow properties due to curing. The main focus of this contribution is to show how these parallel programmes of work were interweaved such that the experimental observations guided the numerical developments and how modelling questions were answered using bespoke experiments.