By taking advantage of the superelastic effect of shape memory alloy (SMA) and the cohering characteristic of repairing adhesive, a smart self-repairing concrete beam with damage self-repairing performance has been developed. In order to verify the potential self-repairing capacity of smart concrete beams reinforced with SMA wires and brittle fibers containing adhesives, static loading tests were conducted. Experimental results show that the superelastic SMA wires added self-restoration capacity to concrete beams, the deflection of the beams reversed and the crack closed almost completely after unloading. After the release of adhesive from the broken-open fibers into the cracks from the first loading, stress was redistributed to the uncracked section where a new crack was formed, while the sealed crack remained closed during reloading for the smart concrete beams reinforced with SMA wires and brittle fibers containing adhesives. While the original cracks experienced reopening, the load was carried directly by the wires during reloading for concrete beams reinforced with SMA wires.

An innovative approach to increase structural survivability of concrete and maintain structural durability of concrete was developed in case of earthquakes and typhoons. This approach takes advantage of the superelastic effect of shape memory alloy(SMA) and the cohering characteristic of repairing adhesive. These SMA wires and brittle fibers containing adhesives were embedded into concrete beams during concrete casting to form smart reinforced concrete beams. The self-repairing capacity of smart concrete beams was investigated by three-point bending tests. The experimental results show that SMA wires add self-restoration capacity, the concrete beams recover almost completely after incurring an extremely large deflection and the cracks are closed almost completely by the recovery forces of SMA wires. The number or areas of SMA wires has no influence on the tendency of deformation during loading and the tendency of reversion by the superelasticity. The adhesives released from the broken-open fibers fill voids and cracks. The repaired damage enables continued function and prevents further degradation.

A new stochastic micro-mechanical damage model for quasi-brittle materials subjected to monotonic and cyclic uniaxial loading is proposed in this paper. The model uses a series of microelements endowed with simple material properties, in which plastic elements are adopted to consider and record plastic deformation, to represent the overall response of the material. The elastoplastic coupling and plastic-damage coupling, as well as the heterogeneity of the material are considered in the model. Furthermore, the model can exhibit the non-linear performance and stochastic properties of the material, and the model predictions match the experimental data well.