BACTERIAL CONCRETE: A REVIEW

Concrete is the foremost building material broadly used in building construction, but cracks in concrete are inevitable and are one of the inherent weakness of concrete. The major downside of concrete is its low tensile strength due to which micro crack occurs when the load applied is more than its limit and this paves way for the seepage of water and other salts. This initiates corrosion and makes the whole structure vulnerable and leads to the failure of structure. To remediate this type of failure due to cracks and fissures, an approach of using bio mineralisation in concrete has evolved in recent years. In this method, of enhancing the performance of concrete, the calcite precipitating spore forming bacteria is introduced into concrete. When water enters through the cracks, it reacts with bacteria and forms precipitates of calcium carbonate, as a by product, which fills the cracks and makes crack free concrete. This type of concrete prepared with bacteria is called as bacterial concrete. Thus, this paper is an attempt to define bacterial concrete, types and classification of micro organisms, working of bio concrete as a repair material, advantages and disadvantages of bacterial concrete and applications by literature review are discussed.