SEMINAR REPORT

ON
SELF HEALING CONCRETE
A report submitted for the partial fulfillment for the award of

Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering

By

PUNITH KUMAR N
4NI16CV072

Department of Civil Engineering

The National Institute of Engineering
(Autonomous under VTU, Belgaum)

Mysuru – 570008

Course code: CV0105

Academic Year: 2018-2019

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 CERTIFICATE

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

This is to certify that Mr. PUNITH KUMAR N, bearing the USN: 4NI16CV072 has
successfully carried out the seminar work, topic entitled “SELF-HEALING CONCRETE”
in V Semester Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering. The seminar report satisfies
the academic requirements prescribed for the Bachelor of Engineering Degree during the
year 2018-2019.

Date:
Place: Mysuru

Signature of Guide Signature of HOD

Examiners:

Sl. No. Name Signature

1.

2.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude and regards to seminar supervisor,

Dr.P.N.CHANDRAMOULI, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, NIE for his
consistent support and guidance.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. N. SURESH, Professor &
Head, Department of Civil Engineering, NIE for providing us this platform.

I also thank all the Faculties of Civil Engineering Department and my batch mates
for their support and coordination.

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 ABSTRACT

Cracks in concrete are inevitable and are one of the inherent weaknesses of concrete. Water
and other salts seep through these cracks, corrosion initiates, and thus reduces the life of
concrete. So there was a need to develop an inherent biomaterial, a self-repairing material
which can remediate the cracks and fissures in concrete. Bacterial concrete is a material, which
can successfully remediate cracks in concrete. This technique is highly desirable because the
mineral precipitation induced as a result of microbial activities is pollution free and natural. As
the cell wall of bacteria is anionic, metal accumulation (calcite) on the surface of the wall is
substantial, thus the entire cell becomes crystalline and they eventually plug the pores and
cracks in concrete.

The plugging of artificially cracked cement mortar using Bacillus Pasteurii and
Sporosarcina bacteria combined with sand as a filling material in artificially made cuts in
cement mortar which was cured in urea and CaCl2 medium. The effect on the compressive
strength and stiffness of the cement mortar cubes due to the mixing of bacteria is also discussed.
It was found that use of bacteria improves the stiffness and compressive strength of concrete.
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to document the role of bacteria in
microbiologically induced mineral precipitation. Rod like impressions were found on the face
of calcite crystals indicating the presence of bacteria in those places. Energy- dispersive X-ray
(EDX) spectra of the microbial precipitation on the surface of the crack indicated the abundance
of calcium and the precipitation was inferred to be calcite (CaCO3).

Key words: Self-repairing, Bacillus Pasteurii, Ureolytic, Bio concrete, Bacterial concrete.

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 CONTENTS

Details Page No.

Title page i
Certificate ii
Acknowledgment iii
Abstract iv
Contents v

Chapter 1
1.0 Introduction 1

Chapter 2
2.0 Self-Healing bacterial concrete 2

Chapter 3
3.0 Bacterias used 4

Chapter 4
4.0 Preparation of bacterial concrete 5

Chapter 5
5.0 Testing of bacterial concrete 6

Chapter 6
6.0 Bioconcrete Mechanism 8

Chapter 7
7.0 Case study 9

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Details Page No.

Chapter 8
8.1 Advantages 11
8.2 Disadvantages 11

Chapter 9
9.0 Conclusion 12

References 12

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 CHAPTER 1

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Concrete is a vital building material that is an absolutely essential component of public

infrastructure and most buildings. It is most effective when reinforced by steel rebar, mainly
because its tensile strength without reinforcement is considerably low relative to its
compressive strength. It is also a very brittle material with low tolerance for strain, so it is
commonly expected to crack with time. These cracks, while not compromising structural
integrity immediately, do expose the steel reinforcement to the elements, leading to corrosion
which heightens maintenance costs and compromises structural integrity over long periods of
time. That being said, concrete is a high maintenance material. It cracks and suffers serious
wear and tear over the decades of its expected term of service. It is not flexible and cannot
handle significant amounts of strain. Self-healing concrete in general seeks to rectify these
flaws in order to extend the service life of any given concrete structure.

There is a material in the realm of self-healing concrete in development, now, that can
solve many of the problems commonly associated with standard concrete. This material is
bacterial self-healing concrete. Self-healing concrete consists of a mix with bacteria
incorporated into the concrete and calcium lactate food to support those bacteria when they
become active. The bacteria, feeding on the provided food source, heal the damage done and
can also reduce the amount of damage sustained by the concrete structure in place.

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 CHAPTER 2

2.0 SELF HEALING BACTERIAL CONCRETE

Fig 2.1 Self-healing bacterial concrete

Autogenously crack-healing capacity of concrete has been recognized in several recent studies.
Mainly micro cracks with widths typically in the range of 0.05 to 0.1 mm have been observed
to become completely sealed particularly under repetitive dry/wet cycles. The mechanism of
this autogenously healing is chiefly due to secondary hydration of non- or partially reacted
cement particles present in the concrete matrix. Due to capillary forces water is repeatedly
drawn into micro cracks under changing wet and dry cycles, resulting in expansion of hydrated
cement particles due to the formation of calcium silicate hydrates and calcium hydroxide.
These reaction products are able to completely seal cracks provided that crack widths are small.
Larger sized cracks can only be partially filled due to the limited amount of non-reacted cement
particles present, thus resulting in only a thin layer of hydration products on the crack surface.
With respect to crack-sealing capacity, a process homologous to secondary hydration of cement
particles is the process of carbonation. This reaction is also expansive as ingress atmospheric
carbon dioxide (CO2) reacts with calcium hydroxide particles present in the concrete matrix to
various calcium carbonate minerals. From the perspective of durability, rapid sealing of
particularly freshly formed surface cracks is important as this hampers the ingress of water and
other aggressive chemicals into the concrete matrix.

Although bacteria, and particularly acid-producing bacteria, have been traditionally

considered as harmful organisms for concrete, recent research has shown that specific species

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such as ureolytic and other bacteria can actually be useful as a tool to repair cracks or clean the
surface of concrete. In the latter studies bacteria were externally and manually applied on the
concrete surface, while for autogenously repair an intrinsic healing agent is needed.. Species
from Bacillus group appear promising intrinsic agents as their spores, specialized thick-walled
dormant cells, have been shown to be viable for over 200 years under dry conditions. Such
bacteria would comprise one of the two components needed for an autogenously healing
system. For crack repair filler material is needed, and bacteria can act as catalyst for the
metabolic conversion of a suitable organic or inorganic component, the second component, to
produce this. The nature of metabolically produced filler materials could be bio minerals such
as calcite (calcium carbonate) or apatite (calcium phosphate). These minerals are relatively
dense and can block cracks, and thus hamper ingress of water efficiently. The development of
a self-healing mechanism in concrete that is based on a potentially cheaper and more
sustainable material then cement could thus be beneficial for both economy and environment.

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 CHAPTER 3

3.0 BACTERIAS USED

Cement and water have a pH value of up to 13 when mixed together, usually a hostile
environment for life, most organisms die in an environment with a pH value of 10 or above.
In order to find the right microbes that thrive in alkaline environments can be found in
natural environments, such as alkali lakes in Russia, carbonate-rich soils in desert areas of
Spain and soda lakes in Egypt. Strains of endolithic bacteria of genus Bacillus were found to
thrive in this high-alkaline environment. These bacteria were grown in a flask of water that
would then be used as the part of the water mix for the concrete. Different types of bacteria
were incorporated into a small block of concrete. Each concrete block would be left for two
months to set hard. Then the block would be pulverized and the remains tested to see whether
the bacteria had survived. It was found that the only group of bacteria that were able to survive
were the ones that produced spores comparable to plant seeds. They are namely bacillus
pasteurii, bacillus filla and bacillus cohnii.

Fig 3.1. Bacillus pasteurii Fig 3.2. Bacillus filla Fig 3.3. Bacillus cohnii

Such spores have extremely thick cell walls that enable them to remain intact for up to
200 years while waiting for a better environment to germinate. They would become activated
when the concrete starts to crack, food is available, and water seeps into the structure. This
process lowers the pH of the highly alkaline concrete to values in the range (pH 10 to 11.5)
where the bacterial spores become activated.

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 CHAPTER 4

4.0 PREPERATION OF BACTERIAL CONCRETE

Self-healing bacterial concrete can be prepared in two ways.

 By direct application.
 By encapsulation in light weight concrete.

By the method of direct application bacterial spores and calcium lactate are added directly
while making the concrete and mixed. Here when the crack occurs in the concrete bacterial
spores broke and bacteria comes to life and feed on the calcium lactate and limestone is
produced which fill the cracks.
By encapsulation method the bacteria and its food, calcium lactate, are placed inside
treated clay pellets and concrete is made. About 6% of the clay pellets are added for making
bacterial concrete. When concrete structures are made with bacterial concrete, when the crack
occurs in the structure and clay pellets are broken and bacterial treatment occurs and hence the
concrete is healed. Minor cracks about 0.5mm width can be treated by using bacterial concrete
Among these two methods encapsulation method is commonly used, even though it’s
costlier than direct application. Bacillus bacteria are harmless to human life and hence it can
be used effectively.

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 CHAPTER 5

5.0 TESTING OF BACTERIAL CONCRETE AND RESULT

Concrete disks are prepared containing the porous aggregates filled with food only and with
food and bacteria. The specimens are cured for 56 days and then tested in a deformation
controlled tensile splitting loading to crack them partially. After this cracking the specimens
are placed in a permeability test setup in which water is applied at one side of the specimen for
24 hours. After the healing the cracks are examined under the microscope and the results were
observed.

Fig 5.1 Test setup

Also the permeability of the healed specimens was determined. The outcome of this
study shows that crack healing in bacterial concrete is much more efficient than in concrete of
the same composition but without added biochemical healing agent. The reason for this can be
explained by the strictly chemical processes in the control and additional biological processes
in the bacterial concrete. On the crack surface of control concrete some calcium carbonate will
be formed due to the reaction of CO2 present in the crack ingress water with Portlandite
(calcium hydroxide) present in the concrete mixture according to the following reaction:

CO2 + Ca(OH)2 → CaCO3 + H2O

The amount of calcium carbonate production in this case in only minor due to the
limited amount of CO2 present. As Portlandite is a rather soluble mineral in fact most of it
present on the crack surface will dissolve and diffuse out of the crack into the overlying water

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mass. Subsequently, as more CO2 is present in the overlying water, dissolved Portlandite will
as yet precipitate in the form of calcium carbonate but somewhat away from the crack itself, as
can be seen. The self-healing process in bacterial concrete is much more efficient due to the
active metabolic conversion of calcium lactate by the present bacteria:

Ca(C3H5O2)2 + 7O2 → CaCO3 + 5CO2 + 5H2O

This process does not only produce calcium carbonate directly but also indirectly via
the reaction of on-site produced CO2 with Portlandite present on the crack surface. In the latter
case, Portlandite does not dissolve and diffuse away from the crack surface, but instead reacts
directly on the spot with local bacterially produced CO2 to additional calcium carbonate. This
process results in efficient crack sealing as can be seen.

Fig 5.2 Controlled and Uncontrolled specimen

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 CHAPTER 6

6.0 BIOCONCRETE MECHANISM

When the concrete is mixed with bacteria (bacillus subtilus), the bacteria go into a dormant
state, a lot like seeds. All the bacteria need is exposure to the air to activate their functions.
Any cracks that should occur provide the necessary exposure. When the cracks form, bacteria
very close proximity to the crack, starts precipitating calcite crystals. When a concrete structure
is damaged and water starts to seep through the cracks that appear in the concrete, the spores
of the bacteria germinate on contact with the water and nutrients. Having been activated, the
bacteria start to feed on the calcium lactate nutrient. Such spores have extremely thick cell
walls that enable them to remain intact for up to 200 years while waiting for a better
environment to germinate.

Fig 6.1 Bacterial self-healing process

As the bacteria feeds oxygen is consumed and the soluble calcium lactate is converted
to insoluble limestone. The limestone solidifies on the cracked surface, thereby sealing it up.
Oxygen is an essential element in the process of corrosion of steel and when the bacterial
activity has consumed it all it increases the durability of steel reinforced concrete constructions.
Tests all show that bacteria embedded concrete has lower water and chloride permeability and
higher strength regain than the surface application of bacteria. The last, but certainly not least,
key component of the self-healing concrete formula is the bacteria themselves. The most
promising bacteria to use for self-healing purposes are alkaliphilic (alkali- resistant) spore
forming bacteria. The bacteria, from the genus Bacillus Subtilis is adopted for present study. It
is of great concern to the construction industry whether or not these bacteria are “smart” enough
to know when their task is complete because of safety concerns. Bacillus Subtilis which is a
soil bacterium is harmless to humans as it is non-pathogenic microorganism.

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 CHAPTER 7

7.0 CASE STUDY

This case study portrays the advantages of cement treated with self-healing agents in the form
of comparison between the amount incurred in construction of cement road with conventional
cement mix vs. the cement treated with self-healing agents.
For the purpose, a cement road of 2km from Kolhapur toll to Shivaji University. This
cement road is a two lane road prepared using conventional methods.

• Length of road = 2 km
• Breadth (2 lanes) = 24 m
• Depth = 0.38 m
• Volume = 18,240 m3

Fig 7.1 Route map of the stretch of the road considered.

7.1 Construction using Conventional Method

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• Amount of Cement = 10.7 bags/m3
• COST of cement required = Rs.5,14, 99,280
• Amount of Fine aggregate = 683.24 kg/m3
• COST of fine aggregate required = RS.96,32,945
• Amount of Coarse aggregate = 1108 kg/m3
• COST of coarse aggregate required = Rs.2,45,47,710
• Amount of Plasticizer = 4.6681l/m3
• COST of plasticizer required = Rs.1572
• Total cost of construction = Rs.8,56,81,507

7.1.2 Construction using Cement Treated with Self-Healing Agents

• Amount of cement = 9.23 bags/m3

• COST of cement required =Rs.4,59,64,800
• Amount of Fine aggregate= 673.3 kg/m3
• COST of fine aggregate required = Rs.94,92,816
• Amount of Coarse aggregate = 1006 kg/m3
• COST of Coarse aggregate required = Rs.2,22,88,409
• Amount of Plasticizer = 4.32l/m3
• COST of Plasticizer = Rs.1568
• Amount of SELF HEALING AGENT = 158.15 Kg/m3
• Cost of SELF HEALING AGENT required = Rs.2,61,51,869
• Total cost of construction = Rs.10,38,99,463.

From the above statistics it is clear that construction cost of cement road using treated
concrete is more than that by using conventional methods. Although, the cost of construction
has increased by about 2 crores, but on the long run, this method is actually economic. This
can be understood by analyzing the additional cost required for the repair and maintenance of
roads made using conventional methods.

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 CHAPTER 8

8.1 ADVANTAGES

 Incorporation of the agent in the concrete will be relatively cheap as well as easy when
the aggregate is immobilized in porous light weight aggregate prior to addition to the
concrete mixture.

 The self-healing bacterial concrete helps in reduced maintenance and repair costs of
steel reinforced concrete structures.

 Oxygen is an agent that can induce corrosion, as bacteria feeds on oxygen tendency for
the corrosion of reinforcement can be reduced.

 Self-healing bacteria can be used in places where humans find it difficult to reach for
the maintenance of the structures. Hence it reduces risking of human life in dangerous
areas and also increases the durability of the structure.

 Formation of crack will be healed in the initial stage itself thereby increasing the service
life of the structure than expected life.

8.2 DISADVANTAGES

 If the volume of self-healing agents (bacteria and calcium lactate) mixed becomes
greater than 20%, the strength of the concrete is reduced.

 Preparation of self-healing concrete needs the requirement of bacteria and calcium

lactate. Preparation of calcium lactate from milk is costlier. Hence preparation of self-
healing concrete costs double than conventional concrete.

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 CHAPTER 9

9.0 CONCLUSION

 Increases the compressive strength and splitting tensile strength tensile strength is
increased.
 It decreases the permeability of the concrete and thus corrosion of steel can be
avoided and thus durability of structures increases.
 This study shows that bacteria can also been used for construction.
 The self-healing concrete will set up new trend in concrete technology that will
reduce the time and money for the renovation and makes the structure more
durable.

REFERENCES:

 Bang.S.S., Lippert, J.J., Yerra, U., Mulukutla, S., and Ramkrishnan, V (2010).
“Microbial calcite, a bio-based smart nanomaterial in concrete remediation.” Int. J.
Smart Nano Mater., 1(1), 28-39.
 Edvardsen, C. (1999). “Water permeability and autogenous healing of cracks in
concrete.” ACI Mater. J., 96(4), 448-454.
 Yang, Y.Z., Yang, E, H., and Li, V.C. (20011). “Autogenous healing of engineered
cementitious composites at early age.” Cem. Concr. Res., 41(2), 176-183.
 Yang, Y. Z., Lepech, M.D., Yang, E.H., and Li, V.C.(2009). “Autogenous healing of
engineered cementitious composites under wet-dry cycles.” Cem. Concr. Res., 39(5),
382-390.
 Wang, J.Y., Sones, H., Verstraete, W., and De Belie, N. (2014).”Self-healing concrete
by use of microencapsulated bacterial spores.” Cem.Concr.Res., 56,139-152.

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