Self-Healing Performance of Biogranule Containing Microbial Self-Healing Concrete Under Intermittent Wet/Dry Cycles

Abstract

Development of self-sensing and self-healing concrete is essential to minimize the labour-intensive monitoring and repair activities conducted for the maintenance of concrete structures. A type of self-healing concrete can be achieved by using microbial agents that induce calcium carbonate precipitation inside a concrete crack. Recently, biogranules consist of nitrate reducing microorganisms were presented as a new generation microbial healing agent and biogranule containing specimens revealed decent healing performance under completely submerged conditions. However, their performance under intermittent wetting conditions, a common case for various concrete structures, remains unknown. This study presents the self-healing performance of biogranule containing biomortar specimens under intermittent wet/dry conditions. In-house produced biogranules were incorporated into mortar specimens at a dose of 1.45% w/w cement (1.00% of bacteria w/w cement) and self-healing performance of cracked specimens were investigated under alternating wet/dry conditions for a crack width range of 50 to 600 µm. Upon alternating wet/dry treatment for 4 weeks, cracks up to a 400 µm crack width were effectively healed in biomortar specimens. Their water tightness regain was 44% better than control specimens due to their enhanced healing performance. Overall, non-axenic biogranules appear to be useful in development of self-healing bioconcrete for applications under spraying or intermittent wetting conditions.