Preliminary investigation of the long-term deformations of self-healing concrete with superabsorbent polymers

A wide range of agents are being developed worldwide to promote the autogenous healing of concrete or to ensure autonomic healing. The performance of these agents is well documented with regards to the regain in strength and durability after healing, e.g. superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) have been widely investigated as a way to stimulate the autogenous healing, in addition to providing internal curing in cementitious materials. However, in order to be able to apply self-healing concrete on the construction site it is important to know the influence of the agents on the long-term deformations, as excessive deformations might result in expensive intervention actions. This paper investigates the influence of the addition of SAPs on the creep and shrinkage deformations. To this end, creep specimens have been loaded at the same stress-to-strength ratio for more than one year in a climate controlled room. Despite a slightly lower strength, the total creep deformations in the concrete with SAPs were lower than those of the reference concrete. The lower total creep could be attributed to a lower autogenous creep and a lower initial drying creep. At later ages the drying creep of the specimens with and without SAPs achieved approximately equal values