Durability Studies on Low-Strength Bacterial Concrete

Abstract

Concrete is the inevitable product of the construction industry without that, construction may not be possible in the current scenario. However, concrete is having several issues such as cracks, lack of workability and effect of chemical attack. Out of these issues, formation of micro-cracks is a bigger problem in terms of durability because micro-cracks will lead to macro-cracks and contribute to the increase in permeability of concrete. In this regard, a self-healing bio-mineralization of bacterial species is used as the aid for the decrease in the permeability and increases of the durability of the structure. In the present study, M20 grade concrete was used to understand the durability of concrete with three different bacterial species for different bacterial cell concentrations. From the results, it can be seen that the permeability of concrete decreases with increase in cell concentrations from 104 to 107 with a maximum of 64% reduction in Water absorption of concrete along with reduction in weight loss was also observed for 2 and 4 weeks of acid attack test with a maximum of 39%. This is mainly due to calcium carbonate deposition in micro-cracks which has inhibited the propagation of cracks from micro to macro and indirectly contributes to the betterment of durability of the concrete and reduction in corrosion.