MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND SELF-HEALING MECHANISM OF EPOXY MORTAR

Abstract

Crack deformation in concrete start with hairline crack or micro-crack which can lead to major crack if not prevented. Crack can cause a major deterioration to the structure as liquid can penetrate inside and cause damage as a result; the durability of concrete will decrease. Self-healing concrete was introduced to automatically repair hairline crack or micro-crack without external intervention. Previous study had shown that by introducing bacteria into the concrete, the crack will heal itself. This paper presents the study on self-healing mortar by using epoxy resin without hardener as a self-healing agent. The self-healing process was evaluated using Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity measurements up to 180 days. Mortar specimens were prepared with mass ratio of 1:3 (cement: fine aggregate), water-cement ratio of 0.48 and 10% epoxy resin of cement content. All tested specimens were subjected to wet-dry curing; where compressive strength, flexural strength, and tensile splitting strength and self-healing mechanism were measured. The results obtained shows that, all strength properties of the self-healing epoxy mortar were significantly higher than the control sample and became constant at 10 % of epoxy resin content. Based on the pulse velocity measurements, after 60 days the cracks of the mortar healed automatically as a result of the reaction between the unhardened epoxy resin and hydroxyl ion from cement hydrate. This shows the ability of the epoxy to be used as self-healing agent.