STUDIES ON STRENGTH CHARACTERS OF SELF

HEALING BACTERIAL CONCRETE

PROJECT REFERENCE NO. : 37S0747

COLLEGE : ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, BANGALORE

BRANCH : CIVIL ENGINEERING

GUIDE : NIKHIL T.R. AND DR. GOPINATH S.M.

STUDENTS : PUNEETH B C

SEETHAMMA C K

SHILPA G N

YOGESH KUMAR Y

Objectives:
Consumption of cement is increasing drastically. As cement demand increases,
production also increases.. In spite of much research the cracks in concrete are inevitable.
The cracks in the concrete are due to multiple reasons such as its low tensile strength,
autogenous shrinkage, freeze-thaw cycles, compressive and tensile forces.

In the present project here is an attempt made to fill the cracks with the help of
bacteria which has a self-healing property. The potential bacteria are isolated and cultured.
The optimum parameter will be considered and the bacterial liquid is being coated on cracked
surface of concrete and the variation in the strength and the durability characteristics will be
studied. Calcite formation of isolated bacteria which can produce calcite precipitates on
suitable media supplemented with a calcium source.

Methodology:
The following steps are involved in the implementation of the project and are not limited to,
Literature Survey
Collection of Required RAW materials
Designing of concrete M20 Grade mix as per IS 10262-2009

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 Culturing of Calcite Depositing Bacteria
Casting and Curing of Controlled Concrete Cubes, Beams and Cylinders
Creating a fault plane For Bacterial Concrete Application
Application of Cultured Bacteria for Cracked Surface
Strength and durability tests on healed concrete
Comparison of strength and durability characteristics of Controlled M20 Grade
concrete and Bacteria healed Concrete
Discussions and Conclusions on the results obtained.

Results and conclusions:

Results:

There is an increase of 12.83% in Compressive strength of bacterial concrete when

compared to Controlled cubes
There is an increase of 4.47% in Split tensile Strength of bacterial concrete when
compared to controlled beams.
There is an increase of 3.51% in Flexural Strength of bacterial concrete when compared
to controlled cylinders.
In the present study concentration of 105 /ml of water is used. The higher the
concentration of bacteria the more CaCO3 is precipitated.

Conclusions:
Based on experimental investigation carried out, following conclusion is drawn

Bacillus Subtilus can be produced from the lab which is proved to be safe and cost
economic.
To conclude we can state that the bacterial approach has potential to contribute to self-
healing capacity of concrete. We have shown that the bacteria incorporated in 105 per
ml has considerably filled the cracks present in the concrete and it is also found that
there is an increase of 12.38 % in compressive strength when compared to controlled
cubes.
The use of this biological repair technique is highly desirable because the mineral
precipitation induced has a result of microbial activities is pollution free and natural,
however further experiments have to be done to examine the durability of this crack
technique.

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 There is an increase of 3.51 % in flexural strength when compared to controlled
concrete.
There is an increase of 4.47 % in split tensile strength when compared to controlled
concrete.
From the above it can be concluded that the Bacillus Subtillus can be easily cultured
and safely used in improving the performance characteristics of concrete.

Scope for Future Studies:

To conduct durability tests on crack repair technique and bacterial concrete.
More work should be done on the retention of nutrients and metabolic products in the
building materials detail microbial ecology studies are also needed in order to
ascertain the effects of introduction of new bacteria into natural microbial
communities.
Fatigue studies on bacteria induced concrete are essential to use it in rigid pavement
constructions.