Investigating the potential for self-healing aggregates in concrete.

• A novel self-healing aggregate meeting engineering specifications is developed. • Self-healing aggregate preserved concrete's strength and permeability. • The self-healing concrete achieves satisfactory healing performance and efficiency. • The healing mechanism of the self-healing system in this study is illustrated. To efficiently heal concrete without compromising mechanical strength, this research investigated an easy approach to synthesis self-healing aggregate. The findings indicate that integrating self-healing aggregates preserved the mechanical strengths, equivalent workability, and permeability of the concrete. Image analysis revealed a healing rate exceeding 80 % for crack areas when the crack width was less than 400 μm, with superior healing product generation within 8 mm crack depth. By day 28, the healing rate for flexural strength reached 72.8 %, and impermeability recovered by 45.4 %. These results underscore the potential for the realization of self-healing concrete suitable for practical deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]