Effects of Capsule Type on the Characteristics of Cement Mortars Containing Powder Compacted Capsules

Several studies have been reported on self-healing concrete using bacteria, admixtures, and microcapsules. Among these self-healing techniques, encapsulating cement-based materials is advantageous in that large amounts of self-healing material can be contained in a capsule and released at the cracked site for a targeted reaction. This study produced a powder compacted capsule (PCC) using the droplet and blended manufacturing methods to encapsulate cementitious materials. This study refers to the PCCs as droplet-PCC (D-PCC) and blended-PCC (B-PCC) according to the manufacturing method used. The fluidity, compressive strength, carbonation, drying shrinkage, and water permeability of cement mortar with PCCs were evaluated. The test results show that the flow of the mortar sample using D-PCC was slightly higher than that of the mortar using B-PCC. The compressive strength of the mortar sample with B-PCC was generally higher than that of the mortar sample with D-PCC. The compressive strength of the B-PCC2 sample (with 0.2% of B-PCC) was the highest at all curing ages. This may be because the B-PCC fracture load was higher than that of the D-PCC. In addition, more hydrates were observed in the B-PCC sample than in the D-PCC sample. A crack healing effect was observed in the samples with PCC, regardless of the PCC type. The effect was the greatest in the B-PCC6 sample (with 0.6% of B-PCC). The results of this study provide a reference for the PCC type and mix ratio that would yield the best mechanical properties and crack healing effect.