Andri Prima Putra, Teuku Budi Aulia, Yunita Idris, Erfan Handoko
Concrete’s deflection and cracking are influenced by flexural capacity. High-strength concrete tends to have high hydration rate, making it susceptible to microcracks, thus, early maintenance is required. The weak nature of concrete against tensile forces allows microcracks to occur and can propagate into macrocracks if the cracks are not detected. Therefore, an innovation emerged called self-healing concrete enabling concrete to cover microcracks independently. This method can be used to heal concrete cracks, involving bacteria in concrete mixture that are active when cracks occur by producing calcite (CaCO3) to close the cracks. In this study, ureolytic bacteria of genus Bacillus sp., Staphylococcus sp., and Solibacillus sp. were used. Specimen used was beam with dimensions of 400mmx100mmx100mm, which was strengthened with 1D10 mm tensile reinforcement to prevent brittle collapse of beam. Variations in bacterial mixture used were 0%; 0.5%; 0.6%; and 0.7% of the cement weight which encapsulated in diatomaceous earth altogether with urea and Ca2+ as precursors and nutrient broth as bacterial nutrients. Encapsulation pellet dosage was 10% from fine aggregate weight. At initial testing stage, cracking load amounting 70% of 7 days non-bacterial concrete flexural tensile strength was imposed to give initial cracks to concrete, then, treatment was conducted for 28 days by immersion in water to visually observe the self-healing process of calcite growth (CaCO3) for 7, 14, 21 and 28 days. After accomplishing crack healing process, ultimate flexural tensile strength testing was performed. The highest average flexural capacity results were obtained in high-strength concrete with 0.6% Bacillus sp. bacteria of 6.34 ton with an average calcite length of 41.00 mm. To analyse atomic structure characteristics of bacterial concrete, XRD testing was carried out and the results showed that bacterial concrete of Bacillus sp. had the highest percentage of amorphous phase, i.e., 82.63%, and contained 33.66% calcite compounds. © 2025 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.
Master of Civil Engineering, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, 23111, Indonesia; Department of Civil Engineering, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, 23111, Indonesia; Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Jalan Rawamangun Muka No. 1, Jakarta, 13220, Indonesia
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