Cement
and concrete are vital materials used to construct durable
habitats and infrastructure that withstand natural and human-caused
disasters. Still, concrete cracking imposes enormous repair costs
on societies, and excessive cement consumption for repairs contributes
to climate change. Therefore, the need for more durable cementitious
materials, such as those with self-healing capabilities, has become
more urgent. In this review, we present the functioning mechanisms
of five different strategies for implementing self-healing capability
into cement based materials: (1) autogenous self-healing from ordinary
portland cement and supplementary cementitious materials and geopolymers
in which defects and cracks are repaired through intrinsic carbonation
and crystallization; (2) autonomous self-healing by (a) biomineralization
wherein bacteria within the cement produce carbonates, silicates,
or phosphates to heal damage, (b) polymer–cement composites
in which autonomous self-healing occurs both within the polymer and
at the polymer–cement interface, and (c) fibers that inhibit
crack propagation, thus allowing autogenous healing mechanisms to
be more effective. In all cases, we discuss the self-healing agent
and synthesize the state of knowledge on the self-healing mechanism(s).
In this review article, the state of computational modeling across
nano- to macroscales developed based on experimental data is presented
for each self-healing approach. We conclude the review by noting that,
although autogenous reactions help repair small cracks, the most fruitful
opportunities lay within design strategies for additional components
that can migrate into cracks and initiate chemistries that retard
crack propagation and generate repair of the cement matrix.