Annotated Summary

Arnold, D. (2011). Articles - Self-Healing Concrete. Retrieved 6 March 2020, from https://www.ingenia.org.uk/Ingenia/Articles/eb2f64de-2493-4dfc-9adc-3ae8e13ca477

The focal point of this article was the progression of 'self-healing' concrete technology over the years. According to the article 'self-healing' concrete is a mixture of concrete containing 'self-healing' agents such as bacteria and nutrients. The idea of incorporating 'self-healing' agents into concrete mix design of the buildings had been conceived in the late 1900s. However, the idea was not fully realized due to the absence of interest from the ‘commercial engineering sector’. Fortunately, the idea was revived in the early 2000s when numerous notable ‘industry players’ made a partnership with Delft University to further the research and development of self-healing concrete. The pursuit of finding a suitable self-healing agent started in 2006 at Delft University. It was discovered that the bacteria which was encapsulated in the concrete could convert nutrients into limestone. The article also mentioned that ‘full-scale outdoor testing’ of the self-healing concrete started in 2011.

The article is a beneficial source for the research of our project on the use of self-healing concrete on monumental buildings in Singapore. It highlighted the methodology and challenges of 'self-healing' concrete throughout the advancement of 'self-healing' concrete technology. When the formation of cracks commences and water seeps into the cracks, the bacteria and nutrients embedded in the concrete would react with water and produce limestones that would fill the cracks. One of the major challenges faced in the early stage of research and development was finding suitable bacteria to embed into the concrete. The high alkali environment of the concrete is a hostile environment for most of the bacteria to survive. This article aided us in understanding the concept and equipped us with fundamental knowledge on self-healing concrete.

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Chen Wai

Humaidi

Jiang Seng

Formal Letter

Dear Professor Brad, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Moe Wai Yan Tun, but you can call me Wai Yan. I graduated from Singapore Polytechnic with a diploma in civil engineering with business in 2017. I chose to study civil engineering in polytechnic because my parents encouraged me to. However, I have grown my interest in it while studying in Singapore Polytechnic and decided to further my studies. A communication strength I possess will be the ability to make a conversation interesting. My love for telling jokes and stories over the years had made me develop a habit to make the conversations captivating. However, I strongly believe that I still have room for improvement. In my opinion, I have a weakness in the ability to initiate a conversation with a stranger. Whenever I am at a party or an event, I find myself interacting with the people that I have known before. I am not a shy person, but I lack the communication techniques and s

My Critical Reflection

The goals I have set for myself at the start of the modules were to better communicate through my writing and to have the ability to analyze and interpret the news articles. Throughout this module, I have learned various writing skills and techniques such as proper language usage for email writing, paraphrasing, and crafting a technical report. The modules have taught me to better understand and use the language through various assignments. To improve myself on my writing skills outside of the classroom I have made a point to follow the procedures and techniques that were taught in the classroom and applied them when I must send emails for my group projects for other modules. Also, during the process of crafting the reader’s response, I have gained skills such as being able to cite sources in APA style and cross-reference 2 different sources. One of the things I was most proud of from the last assignment was my oral presentation. I learned it a hard way about the importance of prepa

SharifApril 1, 2020 at 12:35 AM
Hi Wai Yan,

Your annotated summary was very interesting. I can imagine the potential self-healing concrete can bring to future and older infrastructures. Hopefully, the use of bacteria to 'heal' concrete will come into fruition in the nearby future.

I look forward to reading more of your writings in the future.

Warm regards,
Muhd Sharifuddin
Muhammad HumaidiApril 1, 2020 at 6:07 PM
Dear Wai Yan,

I found your summary informative and interesting. I do not really have much knowledge about this topic, but it seems that this is a very interesting study and hopefully, it can progress further. Interesting article which gave me some good background.

Keep it up and thanks for the interesting read!

Best regards,
Muhammad Humaidi
CenweiApril 2, 2020 at 6:13 AM
Hi Wai Yan,

I found your summary to be an enjoyable and informative read. I was shocked to hear that the idea of incorporating bacteria into concrete was actually explored in the late 1900s and experience a resurgence in interest in the early 2000s. This made me think about how many ingenious ideas have been scrapped due to lack of interest from concerned parties, and how it could have affected the world today.

Nevertheless, I hope that your team would be able to successfully implement the use of bacteria to aid the preservation of Singapore's historical monuments.

Best regards,
Cen Wei
JustinApril 3, 2020 at 7:20 AM
Hi Wai Yan,

This a very detailed and well written summary. it highlighted the advancement of this self healing technology from the 1900s to the 2000s. I hope this information will allow you to have a deeper understanding of this technology and maybe in the future, you can pioneer this in Singapore!

Regards,
Justin
DerrickApril 3, 2020 at 10:26 AM
Hi Wai Yan

This was an informative summary about self-healing concrete that you have written. It was interesting how you took the effort to detail out the history of it so that we can understand how it became viable as an agent in today's world. Naturally, we are all awaiting the progress to continue further so that it can scale more into the future.
Here's hoping!

Best Regards
Derrick

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