Soil self-healing assessment through EMM-ARM testing: Pilot simulation and experiments with healing induced by epoxy resin

This paper presents details of an experimental and numerical research undertaken on the fracture and self-healing of cementitious materials to employ in soil stabilization. Thanks to the collaboration between the University of Bologna and University of Minho this study progressed both numerically and experimentally. The experimental portion of the thesis includes a comprehensive series of tests on lime mortar and simulated stabilized soil specimens, healed with epoxy resin. The development of the self-healing experimental procedure is presented and illustrates the results of a series of three point bending tests. The numerical component of this paper describes the work performed on modelling software in order to compare analytical outputs to experimental data. The purpose of this study is to examine the evolution of the elastic modulus characterizing several sets of specimens under three different conditions: uncracked, cracked and healed. The evaluation of parameters has been done using the Elasticity Modulus Measurement through Ambient Response Method (EMM–ARM); it permitted to monitor frequencies and modulus of elasticity for all the specimens realized during the experimentation phase.