Infrastructure maintenance costs billions of dollars every year. The corrosion of steel reinforcement is one of the primary causes of the deterioration of concrete infrastructure. The standard protection for steel reinforcement is epoxy coating, but it becomes ineffective when damaged. An improvement to this system incorporates self-healing agents into the epoxy coating, automatically repairing damage and extending the life of the structure. This paper presents the results of experimentation conducted with the self-healing agent tung oil microencapsulated in a polymer shell and added to a two-part epoxy. Accelerated corrosion testing showed that the experimental coatings with microcapsules exhibited significantly longer lifespans than samples with unmodified epoxy coatings.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Rice, Nicholas Gage
• Chen, Yixi
• Smith, Nicholas Ryan
• Xia, Chris Tian

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-032415-160958

Advisor

• Sakulich, Aaron R.
• Peterson, Amy M.

Year

• 2015

Date created

• 2015-03-24

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright