Abstract:
To ensure controllable crack-healing performance of concrete under significantly fluctuating oxygen concentrations in actual service environments, a bacteria-based self-healing concrete regulated by mineralization of oxygen-adaptive microbial consortia was proposed. The mineralization precipitation efficiency of oxygen-adaptive microbial consortia was first evaluated, and four oxygen conditions representing actual service environments were designed to examine the effectiveness of crack healing under oxygen fluctuations. Subsequently, by comparison with aerobic microbial consortia and pure culture, the crack-healing performance of concrete and the microstructure of crack-filling products under oxygen-deficient conditions were investigated. The test results show that the oxygen-adaptive microbial consortia exhibit markedly superior mineralization capacity under anaerobic conditions, with the precipitation mass being 3.3 times and 21.8 times higher than those of aerobic microbial consortia and pure culture, respectively. After 56 days of healing under oxygen-deficient conditions, the average values of healed crack widths and completely healed percentage reach 0.48 mm and 75.0%, representing improvements of over 40% and 85% compared with aerobic microbial consortia and pure culture, respectively. Compared with bacteria-free concrete, the oxygen-adaptive microbial consortia significantly improve the healing effectiveness of cracks along the depth direction. The crack-filling crystals are regular blocky calcite, densely and uniformly distributed.