EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON THE USE OF BIO-CEMENT WITH NANO-CARBON FIBRES OF CONCRETE USING R.C.C BEAMS

Civil Engineering

Natural processes, such as weathering faults, land subsidence, earthquakes and human activities create fractures and fissures in concrete structures and historical stone monuments. These fractures and fissures are detrimental since they can reduce the service life of the structure. In the case of monuments and buildings of historical importance, these cracks tend to disfigure and destroy the structure. Therefore it is necessary to remove the cracks of the buildings. Normally artificial materials are used to plug the cracks. Therefore a novel technique for remodeling damaged structural formations has been developed by employing a selective microbial plugging process, in which microbial metabolic activities promote calcium carbonate precipitation. The objective of this work is to quantify the effect of bacterial remediation of concrete using bio-cement application, along with nano-carbon fibres. Biocaulk (Bio+Caulk = Biological material + paste used as sealant) is a biological material which is used as sealant to repair cracks. For the purpose of comparison, techniques using cement mortar and epoxy resin coating are also included. Varying percentages of Nano-carbon along with bio-cement is used and also nano-carbon fibre along with cement mortar is used for remediation. Bio-cement used is prepared using two Medias, nutrient media and brain-heart infusion media.The investigation of damaged beams includes four different degrees of damages namely low, medium and high, and highest determined by rebound hameer and ultrasonic pulse velocity test. The comparison of results of rehabilitated beams lead to the conclusion, that the biocaulk with nano-carbon fiber application is the most effective one and the cement mortar is the least effective method.

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