ABSTRACT
Cracking in Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures is an inevitable phenomenon, which may occur due to tensile loads, shrinkage and or thermal loads etc. These cracks in RC structures are one of the most prominent reason for the durability loss by corrosion of reinforcing steel by forming channels for CO2, water and Cl− ions to penetrate into the concrete easily. The service life span of RC structures is drastically shortened by these cracks in concrete. The objective of this research work is to develop a self-repair system for cracks of reinforced concrete structures by using a network system. In this study, the regain of flexural strength of ordinary cement mortars by the self-repair system using a repair material in the network system and the storage period of the repair material in the network was taken into consideration. In addition to this, the influence of viscosity of the repair material injected in the network on the regain of flexural strength by self-repair system was also evaluated. In order to prolong the storage period of the repair material in the network, several types of surface treatment techniques were applied and tested.
