SELF HEALING CONCRETE - A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE BY

SIMON DUNN

AMITY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,AMITY UNIVERSITY

By:- Guide:-
Viren Chandna Mrs. T. Visalakshi
A2315810023 Civil Engg. Deptt.
Ritvik Sood
A2315810058 Mrs. Mansi Vermani
Mohammad Umar Biotechnology Deptt
A2325010012
 CONTENTS

•Introduction
•Objectives
•Literature Review
•Methodology
•Conclusion
Introduction
 What is self healing concrete?

• Self healing concrete is a term that is used for cement based

materials that repair themselves after the structure gets damaged
due to some sort of degradation.
• The application of alkali-resistant endospore-forming bacteria to
enhance the self-healing capacity of concrete is being investigated.
• The bacteria are able to form spores, which are specialized
spherical thick –walled cells.
• These spores are viable and can withstand mechanical and
chemical stresses.
• This process does not only produce calcium carbonate directly but
also indirectly via the reaction of on-site produced CO2 with calcium
hydroxide present on the crack surface.
 Back ground

• In past also self healing concrete phenomenon was observed.

• Some cracks in old structures are filled with white crystalline

material having the ability to seal the cracks with chemical products
by itself, perhaps with the aid of rainwater and carbon dioxide in air.
 Causes of self healing

a) Formation of calcium carbonate or calcium hydroxide,

b) Sedimentation of particles,
c) Continued hydration,
d) swelling of the cement matrix.
a) Formation of calcium carbonate or calcium hydroxide
Calcium hydroxide is a reaction product of the hydration of concrete surface:
Ca(OH) 2 ↔ Ca2+ + 2OH-
Ca2+ + CO32- ↔ CaCO 3
b) Sedimentation of particles

Particles originating from the liquid or cement particles loosen from the crack
surface can be carried by the flow and clog a crack

c) Continuing hydration
The un hydrated cement in the vicinity of the crack hydrates and the hydration
product fill the crack

d) Swelling of the cement matrix

The saturation of crack surface cause swell. This can close small cracks. When
the concrete drying again, the crack will be wider.
 Contd..

• In recent years, there is increasing interest in the phenomenon of

mechanical property recovery in self healed concrete materials.

• Because self-healing concrete could solve the problem of concrete

structures deteriorating before the end of their service life.

• For cement based materials, there are two types of methods:

1. Using Bacterial to precipitate calcite in cracks in concrete.

2. Using encapsulated sealants or adhesive methods
 Why the need?

• Concrete is the most important construction material for

infrastructure but most concrete structures are prone to cracking.
• Concrete structures are start to deteriorate from tiny cracks on the
surface of the concrete.
• Water seeps into the concrete and corrodes the steel reinforcement.
It makes the whole structure vulnerable and greatly reduces the
lifespan of concrete structures.
• However, repair of concrete structures is very difficult.
• If, the structures are installed underground or at a great height,
repairs can be impossible or very expensive due to difficulty of
access to the structures.
Objectives
• Development of concrete which will be able to heal its own
cracks.

• There is no loss in compressive strength.

• The porosity of self healed concrete is less to protect the reinforcement

from corrosion.

• To obtain an optimum value of quantified crack healing.

Literature Review
 A) Bacteria-based self-healing concrete
H. M. Jonkers
Delft University of Technology, Microlab, Delft, the
Netherlands

• This study shows that crack healing of bacterial concrete based on expanded
porous clay particles loaded with bacteria and calcium lactate.
• Main objective of this study was to establish whether bacteria immobilized in
porous expanded clay particles prior to concrete mix addition can substantially
increase bacterially-mediated self-healing in comparison to direct unprotected
addition of bacteria to the concrete mixture as was done in a previous study.
• Comparison between bacterial and control specimens revealed a significant
difference in permeability and thus in self-healing capacity.
• The use of clay particles used instead of 2-4mm aggregates showed a decrease
of nearly 50% compressive strength however the results of crack healing were
substantially good and 100% healing was achieved in all specimens.
• This study was however only qualitative in nature and before practical
application becomes feasible, further optimization of the proposed system is
needed. E.g., the amount of healing agent needed should be minimized in order
to become economically competitive with currently existing repair techniques
and furthermore to reduce consequences such as loss in compressive strength.
 B) Self Healing Concrete – A Sustainable Future
Simon Dunn, Cardiff University

• In this research, A series of experimental studies have been presented

which highlight Aerovac Shrinktite PET as a suitable polymer for the
proposed self healing concrete system.
• They proposed a fully numerical model which accurately simulates the
shrinkage behaviour of PET and this model can be used successfully in
conjunction with a concrete material model.
• Upon crack formation the system The shape memory polymer, which is
anchored within a cavity in the cementitious matrix is activated via heating.
Upon activation the shape memory effect or shrinkage occurs and due to
the restrained nature of the tendon, a tensile force is generated. This tensile
force in turn imparts a compressive force to the cementitious matrix at the
crack location and hence the crack closes.
• This study was fully quantitative in nature.
This is the proposed method of self healing in this
research as explained earlier.
 C) Use of bacteria to repair cracks in concrete
Kim Van Tittelboom , Nele De Belie , Willem De Muynck
, Willy Verstraete

• In this study ureolytic bacteria was used Ureolytic bacteria such as Bacillus
sphaericus are able to precipitate CaCO3 in their micro-environment by
conversion of urea into ammonium and carbonate. The bacterial
degradation of urea locally increases the pH and promotes the microbial
deposition of carbonate as calcium carbonate in a calcium rich environment.
These precipitated crystals can thus fill the cracks.
• In this research, silica gel was used to protect the bacteria against the high
pH in concrete .
• Efficiency of this biological treatment was also evaluated by means of
ultrasonic transmission measurements and visual examination.
• Crack treatment with B. sphaericus, immobilized in silica gel, resulted in an
increase in ultrasonic pulse velocity, indicating that crack bridging was
obtained.
• This study however was again a quantitative one.
 D) Use of microorganism to improve the strength of
cement mortar
P. Ghosh, S. Mandal, B.D. Chattopadhyay, S. Pal

• This study describes a method of strength improvement of cement–sand

mortar by the microbiologically induced mineral precipitation.
• A thermophilic anaerobic microorganism is incorporated at different cell
concentrations with the mixing water.
• The study showed that a 25% increase in 28 day compressive strength of
cement mortar was achieved with the addition of about 10^5 cell/ml of
mixing water.
• SEM examination reveals the growth of fibrous filler material within the
pores due to the presence of such microorganisms. This growth is beneficial
by the modification of the porosity and pore size distribution of cement
mortar which it generates.
• E. coli microorganisms were also used in the cement mortar for comparison,
but no improvement in strength was observed.
 Other Research Papers

1. Recent advances on self healing of concrete

E. Schlangen, H. Jonkers, S. Qian & A. Garcia
Delft UniversitMicrolab, Delft, Netherlandsy of Technology.
2. Permeability and self-healing of cracked concrete as a function of
temperature and crack width
Hans-Wolf Reinhardt, Martin Jooss.

3. Influence of bacteria on the compressive strength, water absorption

and rapid chloride permeability of fly ash concrete.
Navneet Chahal , Rafat Siddique , Anita Rajor.

4. Quantification of crack-healing in novel bacteria-based self-healing

concrete
Virginie Wiktor , Henk M. Jonkers
 Contd..

5. A two component bacteria-based self-healing concrete

Henk M. Jonkers & Erik Schlangen

6. Influence of self-healing, mixing method and adding silica fume on

mechanical properties of recycled aggregates concrete
Ali Abd Elhakam, Abd Elmoaty Mohamed, Eslam Awad

7. A review: Self-healing in cementitious materials and engineered

cementitious composite as a self-healing material
Min Wua, Björn Johannesson , Mette Geiker

8. Application of bacteria as self-healing agent for the development

of sustainable concrete
Henk M. Jonkersa, Arjan Thijssena, Gerard Muyzerb, Oguzhan Copuroglua, Erik
Schlangena
 Contd..

9. Microbial carbonate precipitation in construction materials: A review

Willem De Muynck, Nele De Beliea,Willy Verstraete.

10. Optimum conditions for microbial carbonate precipitation

George D.O. Okwadha ,Jin Li

11. Use of bacteria to repair cracks in concrete

Kim Van Tittelboom , Nele De Belie , Willem De Muynck , Willy Verstraetw

12. Bacterial carbonate precipitation improves the durability of cementitious

materials
Willem De Muynck , Dieter Debrouwer , Nele De Belie , Willy Verstraete
METHODOLOGY
 Design Mix for M30
concrete prepared

All materials measured by

weight

12 concrete cubes of size

70.6 x70.6 x 70.6mm
casted

3 normal 9 bacterial
concrete concrete
cubes cubes

3, 7 and 28 day compressive

strength testing
 MATERIALS USED

1. CEMENT:-
• Ordinary Portland cement of 53 grade.

2. SAND:-
• Locally available Sand is used to find the
compressive strength of concrete cubes.
3. FINE AGGREGATE:-
• Fine aggregate is chosen between sizes
4.75 mm to 10mm
accordance with IS: 2386-1963.
4. COARSE AGGREGATE:-
• Coarse aggregate is chosen as 20mm
5. WATER:-
• Water used for mixing and curing is fresh
portable water.
conforming to IS:3025–1964
6. BACTERIA:-
• 100ml Urea broth
 EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED

• Bacillus was grown in NBU media.

• The cement to sand ratio was 1:3 (by weight),
• Cement ratio was 0.47.
• A cube mould of 70.6 mm was used, as per IS 4031-1988
• Control and bacterial specimens are tested at the intervals of 3, 7 and 28
days.
• Test reveals that there is an increase in the compressive strength of
bacterial cubes by 12% as compared to that of normal concrete.
 WATER ABSORPTION TEST

• Presence of bacteria resulted in a significant decrease of the water uptake

compared to control specimens.
• Cubes treated with Bacillus sp.absorbed nearly six times less water than the
control cubes.
Cubes after casting Cubes after compression testing
 ACTIVITY SCHEDULE
Activity December January February March 2014 April 2014
2013 2014 2014
Major Project Topic
given
Reading various
research papers
Sieve testing

Culturing Bacteria

Casting 12
70x70x70 mm3
cubes induced with
bacteria
Casting 3
70x70x70mm3
normal concrete
cubes
Evaluation of
compressive
strength results
Casting 12
70x70x70mm3
cubes induced with
bacteria
Casting 3
70x70x70mm3
normal concrete
cubes
Evaluating results
(SEM)
Preparation of
theisis/synopsis 27
FUTURE WORK
• It is positively expected that this addition of bacteria in a
specific concentration will show crack healing properties in this
bacterial concrete
THE END