Abstract

Bacteria-based self-healing concrete is an innovative concrete that contains a self-healing agent that provides the material with enhanced crack-sealing performance. A specific type of this concrete, based on a healing agent composed of bacterial spores and lactate as carbon source, has been developed and applied by the Delft University of Technology for over ten years. The material potentially allows reduction of steel reinforcement used for crack width limitation in watertight constructions due to its autonomous crack-sealing potential of cracks up to 0.4mm wide at a healing agent dosage quantity of 5kg/m3 concrete. This not only results in a reduction of costs but also in improvement of environmental performance (lower CO2 footprint) and ease of in situ casting due to reduction of steel in waterproof applications. However, according to the EN 1990 Eurocode (Basis of structural design), customary application of a novel type of concrete must be preceded by full scale demonstrators proving evidence for save and functional performance. In this contribution we portray two full scale demonstrator projects paving the way for application of bacteria-based self-healing concrete with reduced amount of reinforcement steel for watertight constructions.