Application of bio-based material for concrete repair: case study leakage on parallel concrete slab

Abstract

The applicability of bio-based materials for concrete repair has been studied. This technique employs yeast, glucose and calcium acetate mixed in Tris buffer solution. The microbial metabolic process leads to precipitation of calcium carbonate. First, this study investigated the applicability of bio-based repair materials to small-scale concrete specimens. On this research, water permeability test was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the selected mixtures for sealing cracks in the concrete specimens. As the result of permeability tests carried out using specimens with crack width of 0.6 mm, water leakage through crack was observed to be negligible after 216 hours by continuous pouring method using bio-based repair materials. Also, this study showed the initial flow rate for the specimens with the same crack width does not influence crack sealing time. Furthermore, the precipitation of the calcium carbonate from the bio-based materials was analyzed by Fourier-Transformed Infra-Red spectroscopy (FT-IR) and then examined by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) for mineral identification formed through the microbial metabolic process.