Bio Concrete- The Self-Healing Concrete

Abstract

Concrete is vital and basic material used in construction industry from foundation of the building to structure of bridges and underground passages. It has high tendency to form cracks when subjected to tension or due to external atmosphere. It leads to reduction of concrete life. Repairs of conventional concrete structures usually involve use of big machines and instruments which has to be highly maintained. Repairs can particularly be time consuming and has high maintenance cost. Thus, treatment methods that are eco-friendly and long lasting are in high demand.Bacterial Self-healing concrete is in development now, which has enhanced property than that of conventional concrete. It consists of a Bacillus species combined in the concrete in the form of bacterial solution and bacterial beads along with its food and silica gel. Bacteria heals the crack formed. Bacterial self-healing concrete has more compressive strength than that of conventional concrete. Mainly micro cracks have been noticed healing within. The mechanism and study of this healing property is briefly described in this paper