Design and application of permanent magnetic tools for magnetically driven concrete crack filling technology

Current technologies rely on skilled labor to infiltrate narrow concrete cracks, and there are many inefficiencies that reduce the efficacy and reliability of the repairs. This paper proposes a magnetic approach to effectively fill concrete cracks, thereby reliably improving the strength and durability of the structures. Scalable and tunable magnetic tools were designed, prototypes were built to validate numerical models.The efficacy of the magnetic approach and magnetic tools in pushing solutions away from the device was demonstrated. These tools facilitate the application of both the crack-filling solution and magnetic tool from the same face of the cracked concrete element, making this technology versatile for concrete crack-filling operations. The findings validate the feasibility of using this approach and provide insight into the design of the magnetic tools. Based on the promising results, recommendations are outlined for successfully designing magnetic tools to implement this crack filling approach on-site.