Influence of Crystalline Admixtures and Their Synergetic Combinations with Other Constituents on Autonomous Healing in Cracked Concrete—A Review

Crystalline admixtures (CAs) are new materials for promoting self-healing in concrete materials to repair concrete cracks. They have been applied to tunnel, reservoir dam, road, and bridge projects. The fundamental research and development of CAs are needed concerning their practical engineering applications. This paper reviews the current research progress of commercial CAs, including self-made CA healing cracks; the composition of CA; healing reaction mechanism; the composition of healing products; distribution characteristics of healing products; the influence of service environment and crack characteristics on the healing performance of CA; and coupling healing performance of CA with fiber, expansive agent, and superabsorbent polymers. The current research findings are summarized, and future research recommendations are provided to promote the development of high-performance cement matrix composites.

Research on Shrinkage Inhibition Technology of C50 Steel Shell Immersed Tube Self-Compacting Concrete

The effects of shrinkage reducing agent and expansion agent on workability, strength and shrinkage of C50 self-compacting concrete with steel-shell immersed tube were studied. It is found that the expansive agent can increase the 28d compressive strength of concrete and restrain the shrinkage of concrete, but it can reduce the mixture property of concrete, and the shrinkage reducing agent can reduce the 28d compressive strength of concrete, but it can obviously restrain the shrinkage of concrete and improve the performance of concrete mixture. On the basis that the performance of concrete mixture meets the technical index, when the dosage of shrinkage reducing agent is 1.5%, the performance of concrete mixture is the best, and the drying shrinkage rate of 28d is the smallest. At this time, the properties of C50 steel-shell sunk pipe self-compacting concrete are as follows: slump flow 720mm, T50 2s, pour-down time 2s, v-shaped funnel passing time 6s, 28d compressive strength 59.6 MPa, 28d drying shrinkage 135×10−6.

Experimental Study on Influence of Microexpansive Concrete Self-Stress on Performance of Steel Pipe Concrete

To explore the influence of microexpansive concrete self-stress on the performance of steel pipe concrete, the expansion rate test of microexpansive concrete confined by steel tube was carried out with different expansion rates. Then, the mechanical properties of high-strength steel tube-confined microexpansive concrete (HSTCMC) short columns were conducted by the uniaxial compression test. The length-to-diameter ratio, the expansion rate of the microexpansive concrete, and the steel tube thickness were investigated in the study. Furthermore, the ABAQUS software was employed to analyze the microexpansive mechanism of the concrete, and it was verified by the uniaxial compression test. The test results show that the concrete possesses a remarkable volume expansion phenomenon, which was up to 150 με after four days of maintenance time. The mechanical properties of the HSTCMC short columns were greatly improved compared to the control RC pier. The yield and ultimate strength of the HSTCMC short columns can be enhanced to 8.9% and 14.6%, and with the content of expansive agent that increased from 8% to 12%. The finite element analysis results highlighted that the end constraint at the two ends has the biggest influence on the mechanical performance of the HSTCMC short columns, followed by the thickness of the steel tube and the content of the expansive agent. It should be noted that the self-stress of microexpansive concrete will be decreased with the increase in the length-to-diameter ratio, when the length-to-diameter ratio is less than four. Furthermore, the constraint effect of the circular steel tube on the microexpansive concrete is better than that of the rectangular section steel tube.