Bacteria-based self-healing concrete is a construction material used to repair cracks in concrete, in which the bacterial spores are immobilized by bacteria carriers. However, the currently available bacteria carriers are not always suitable due to a complicated procedure or high cost. To develop a more suitable bacteria carrier as well as improve the anti-crack capability of self-healing concrete, in this study we evaluate the feasibility of using rubber particles as a novel bacteria carrier in self-healing concrete. Two types of self-healing concrete are prepared with rubber particles of different sizes to quantify the crack-healing effect. In addition, the fluidity and mechanical properties of the self-healing rubber concrete are compared with those of plain concrete and normal rubber concrete. The experimental results show that the self-healing rubber concrete with a particle size of 1~3 mm has a better healing capacity than the self-healing rubber concrete with a particle size of 0.2~0.4 mm, and the width value of the completely healed crack is 0.86 mm. The self-healing rubber concrete has a higher slump than the plain concrete and normal rubber concrete. According to the strength tests, the compressive strengths of the self-healing rubber concrete are low early on but they exceed those of the corresponding normal rubber concrete at 28 days. Moreover, the self-healing rubber concrete has higher splitting tensile strengths than the plain concrete and a better anti-crack capability. The results of a comparison to the other two representative bacterial carriers indicate that rubber particles have potential to be a widely used bacteria carrier for practical engineering applications in self-healing concrete.
Keywords: cracks; rubber particles; self-healing concrete; strength.