Autogenous healing is common in underground drainage pipes because of the presence of water on either side of the pipes. The non-moving cracks in concrete pipes are sealed by calcium carbonate crystals from carbon dioxide in air and calcium hydroxide in concrete in the process called autogenous healing. The healed cracks are impermeable and behave even stronger than the original.
Autogenous healing can also be adopted to combat corrosion. The presence of water provides the basic conditions for both corrosion and autogenous healing. Corrosion shall take place with rusting of steel. At the same time, calcium carbonate from autogenous healing would be deposited on the cracks and the location of rusting. At last, the two processes compete i.e. disruption by volume expansion of rusting and the isolation of steel surface.
This question is taken from book named – A Self Learning Manual – Mastering Different Fields of Civil Engineering Works (VC-Q-A-Method) by Vincent T. H. CHU.
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