It's a variation on the idea of reinforced concrete. It will take time to understand the interaction between cement and polymer. It took us time to understand that if moisture gets to the steel rods, the reinforced concrete beams crack.
Exactly; and the crucial intermediate step in there is the moisture causing the steel to oxidize, the iron oxide increasing the volume of the rebar, and thus putting the concrete in tension from the inside, and since concrete really sucks in tension (but is great in compression), the concrete cracks.
I'm mystified that iron-based rebar is even still allowed in construction, when fiberglass-based rebar is readily available and proven to work better.
I'm sure adding a bit of kevlar in the rods would solve that problem, but modeling will still be difficult...
Large numbers of low cost social housing used RAAC as a roofing solution that exists to this day. Councils that still manage low rent housing for people on assisted incomes are taking the financial hit for insurance and replacement.
Arguably worse is the situation of those people who scrimped and saved and bought their way out of povety and purchased the house they previously rented.
What was once an investment of their life savings into capital that would grow in value is now money lost in a house scheduled for demolition that has zero value with a defect no insurer will cover.