Contribuição ao estudo da autocicatrização em argamassas de cimento Portland

Abstract

Both concrete and structural mortar are wildly used in construction and they are subjected to all kinds of loads that the structure is exposed. It’s known that both materials support a much smaller tensile strength when compared to the compression strength. The occurrence of fissures increases when factors such as loads, climate conditions, external agents, material quality and human action are put together. The present paper presents a contribution to the appearance of fissures, being the application of a self-healing concrete additive as the study object. 90 prismatic specimens made of mortar were produced for the study, in the three different mixtures: a reference mixture, a mixture using catalyzer A and a mixture using catalyzer B. These specimens were subjected to a tensile strength test using a maximum load of 90% the rupture tension values, mechanically inducing fissure. Later, the same specimens remained either in a moist curing chamber or submerged in water for 90 days to induce the selfhealing process. SEM and absorption tests were performed to evaluate possible results from components A and B. Using statistical analyses, it was possible to observe that component B absorbed less water than the reference mixture, whereas the other hasn’t shown results that could lead to the same conclusions. SEM testing accomplished its main goal which was to present imaging where self-healing process formations could be identified, although not being possible to quantify results.