Self-healing is among the emerging techniques that allow for the material properties recovery of damaged structural elements. The contribution considers the modeling of this process in concrete and cementitious composites. Classically, self-healing is related to the sealing of already-formed cracks. Under certain circumstances, materials such as, concrete demonstrate a natural ability for self-healing. Techniques for engineering the material on various scales demonstrate a promising potential to enhance the self-healing potential. The safe and efficient implementation of self-healing techniques in industrial applications requires an accurate design. Some results of the numerical investigation of the numerical modeling and simulation of structural elements made of a material with healing capabilities are presented. The analysis algorithms employ a smeared crack model based on continuum damage mechanics to model the damage accumulation. The algorithms are integrated into a general-purpose finite element code. By assumption, the self-healing is autonomous, with a non-mechanical triggering. The algorithm accounts for the recovery of the degraded material properties at a user-specified moment. Self-healing can be triggered multiple times, and the procedure allows for the subsequent damage accumulation in the healed zones.
The behavior of small-scale concrete specimens containing a self-healing agent is reproduced by finite element analysis. The response of large-scale structural elements is studied, as well. Specimens are initially loaded without reaching a limit state to generate some damage distribution; after that, they are unloaded, and an autonomous self-healing is triggered. Finally, the studied specimens are loaded again until failure. Global and local responses are investigated, the former – in terms of stress-strain relationships, and the latter - in terms of the evolution of the accumulated damage distribution. The efficiency of the self-healing techniques in the conducted numerical experiments is evaluated based on the partially regained strength.