Service life of concrete culverts repaired with biological sulfate-resisting mortars

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of biological repairing mortars on restoring the structural performance of a sewage culvert deteriorated by sulfate attack. The biological mortars were developed for protecting concrete structures exposed to sulfate attack based on the block membrane action of the bacterial glycocalyx. The diffusion coefficient of sulfate ions in the biological mortars was determined from the natural diffusion cell tests. The effect of sulfate-attack-induced concrete deterioration on the structural performance of culverts was examined by using the moment-curvature relationship predicted based on the nonlinear section lamina approach considering the sulfuric-acid-induced degradation of the structure. Typical analytical assessments showed that biological mortars were quite effective in increasing the sulfate-resistant service life of sewage culverts.