Self-Healing Smart Infrastructure: Programmable Materials for Autonomous Repair and Sensing

Abstract: This study investigates self-healing smart infrastructure as a materials–systems paradigm in which structural components incorporate programmable repair chemistries and embedded sensing to autonomously detect, localize, and mitigate damage. The central premise is that lifetime extension of bridges, pavements, pipelines, and coastal assets is increasingly limited by distributed microcracking, moisture ingress, chloride-driven corrosion initiation, and fatigue damage that remain subcriti