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Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 8875–8879 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ICRAMC_2017

Studies on the mechanical properties of bacterial concrete

with two bacterial species
P Jagannathan*a, K S Satya narayanana, Kantha devi arunachalamb ,
Sathesh kumar annamalaib
a
Department of Civil Engineering, SRM University, Kattankulathur.*
b
Center for Environmental Nuclear Research , SRM University, Kattankulathur
____________________________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

Bacterial Concrete Is a Concrete ,Where The Properties Of Concrete Are Modified Using Selected Bacteria . Bacillus Sphaericus And Bacillus
Pasteurii Where Selected Based On Literature Review To Enhance The Strength And Durabulity Of Concrete. When 10% Of Cement Is
Replaced By Fly Ash Enriched With Bacillus Sphaericus Higher Strength Is Obtained Than Controlled Concrete And Concrete Made With
Bacillus Pasteurii. In Compression Test Concrete Made With Bacillus Sphaericus Gives 10.8% Higher Strength, In Split Tensile Test 29.37%
Higher Strength And In Flexure 5.1% Higher Strength Than Controlled Concrete. Concrete Made With Bacillus Pasteurii Gives Marginally Less
Strength Than Bacillus Sphaericus.

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference On Recent Advances In Material Chemistry.

Key words: Bacillus sphaericus ; BacillusPasteurii ;CaCO3; Compressive Strength; Flyash.

1.Introduction

Concrete is considered as a homogenous material which is made of cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and
water in a certain proportion. Concrete consists of voids termed as pores, which are mostly interconnected with each
other that makes concrete a porous material and is susceptible to many attacks like chloride, carbon dioxide,
sulphate, freeze and thaw cycles etc. The infrastructure made of concrete has a design period of 50 years [1] but
concrete fails much earlier due to these attacks. Cement concrete has an annual production of about 10 km3/year and
is the most used construction material and is also one of the most important material in construction industry [2].
Cement is the only manufactured ingredient and others are naturally available local materials. One ton of cement
production produces approximately one ton of CO2 and 50% global emission of CO2 into the atmosphere can be
attributed to construction industries [1] Concrete is weak in tension and brittle, yet it is used in construction of
bridges, tall buildings, off shore structures, runways, pavements, railway sleepers, tunnel lining etc. because of its

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: 9940236514;
E-mail address: jagannathan.p@ktr.srmuniv.ac.in

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2214-7853© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference On Recent Advances In Material Chemistry.
8876 Jagannathan et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 8875–8879

versatility. Many concrete structures face premature degradation problems like carbonation, chloride attack which
results and leads to repair and retrofitting of the structures[3]. There is a urgent need to reduce the usage of cement
by using the recommended alternate cementations materials like flyash, silica fume, blast furnace slag, Metakaolin
in concrete as partial replacement to cement[4]. The usage of the above materials in single are combinations of the
above is being researched for its beneficial characteristics. In addition to them for enhancing performance of
concrete, the induction of bacteria into concrete system is also found in recent era[5 ]. From our previous research
on carbonate precipitation by bacteria has been performed using ureolytic bacteria [6,7]. These bacteria are able to
influence the precipitation of calcium carbonate by the production of a urease enzyme. This enzyme catalyzes the
hydrolysis of urea to CO2 and ammonia, resulting in an increase of the pH and carbonate concentration in the
bacterial environment. The use of bacterial cells has improved the strength and durability of fly ash-amended
concrete further provides greener and economic options. The presence of bacteria in alkaline pH increased the
resistance of concrete toward alkali attack, sulfate, freeze-thaw attack, and drying shrinkage[6]. Literature review
shows almost all bacteria are capable of precipitating calcium carbonate , to have higher benefits the selected
bacteria need to be Alkaliphilic, thermophilic. Bacillus Sphaericus which precipitate denser calcium carbonate and
alkaliphilic [7] and Bacillus Pasteurii is alkaliphilic and improves compressive strength of concrete [8,9] ,
Bacillus species are completely not harmful to human beings the two bacterial species selected to enrich class F
flyash to replace cement in concrete.

2. Materials and methods

2.1 Selection of Bacteria
Bacillus sphaericus and Bacillus Pasteurii are obtained from Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank,
Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh. The Bacillus sphaericus and Bacillus Pasteurii are alkli tolerant
spore, Ureolytic [ 8 ], Gram-positive, aerobic and round-spore-forming bacterium which survive in a highly alkaline
environment of concrete during the formation of CaCO3 crystals on concrete implies that the presence of the
bacteria had no negative implication on hydration reaction which forms a dense calcium carbonate crystals in liquid
medium[10]. The culture was maintained on nutrient agar slants at 4oC and sub cultured at every 15 days interval on
the filter-sterilized medium[11].

2.2 Growth curve for Bacillus sphaericus and Bacillus Pasteurii

Bacillus species were grown in the optimized media for enhanced production of Calcium Carbonate which
contains Sodium bicarbonate, Ammonium chloride, urea and calcium chloride in distilled water. For Growth Curve
determination the cells were grown in batch culture aerobically at 37°C at 100 RPM over time, aliquots were
removed for optical density measurements and viable plate counts. Optical density at 600 nm (OD 600) was
measured with UV–vis 3000+ double- beam spectrophotometer (Lab India, Maharashtra, India).

2.3 Properties of Ordinary Portland Cement

Ordinary Portland Cement 43 grade was used. It was tested as per Indian standard specifications (IS 8112:1989)
and its properties are given in table 1.

Table 1. Physical Properties of Ordinary Portland cement

Physical Properties Values
Fineness of Cement 0.23 m2/g
Standard Consistency 31 %
Initial Setting Time (min) 35
Final Setting Time (min) 510
Specific gravity 3.25
2.4 Properties of Fly ash
Fly ash from Ennore Thermal Power Plant (Tamil Nadu) was analyzed as per IS 3812-1981. Fly ash is conformed
as class – F, results are given in Table 2 .
 Jagannathan et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 8875–8879 8877

Table 2. Physical Properties of Fly ash

Physical Properties Values

Specific gravity 2.20

Specific surface area 1.240(m2/g)

Moisture content (%) 0.200

Wet density 1.75(g/cc)

Turbidity (NTU) 459

pH 7.3

2.5 Properties of Fine and Coarse aggregate

Natural sand of with maximum size of 4.75 mm as fine aggregates and coarse aggregate passing through 20mm
and retained on 12.5 mm was used. They were tested as per Indian Standard Specifications IS: 383-1970. As per
code, sand is conformed as Zone II. The Specific gravity of Fine aggregate and course aggregate is 2.615 g/cc

2.6 Specimens to find compressive, split tensile strength andFlexural strength of concrete
M20 grade concrete mix was designed as per IS 10262-1982 . For moderate exposure and water cement ratio of
0.46 requirement of cement for 1m3 of concrete is 416.50kg. Mix ratio of concrete as per mix design is 1:1.40:2.74
with w/c ratio 0.46. Concrete cubes of size 100mm x100mm x 100mm are cast to find compressive strength and
cylinders of size 100mm dia and 200mm long are cast to find split tensile strength of concrete. Concrete beams are
cast of size 500mm x 100mm x 100mm to find the flexural strength of concrete.

2.7 Different proportions of concrete

Concrete specimens were cast in the following proportions to test and compare the benefits of mixing bacterial
culture with fly ash to replace cement in cement concrete.
1.) Controlled concrete ( CC) specimens without addition of fly ash
2.) Concrete produced by partial replacement of cement by class f fly ash in concrete ( CCF). Specimens were
cast by using f class f fly ash in 10%, 20%, 30% of cement weight .
3.) Concrete produced by partial replacement of cement by class f fly ash enriched with bacteria Bacillus
sphaericus in concrete ( CCFBS). Specimens were cast by using f class f fly ash enriched with bacteria
Bacillus sphaericus in 10%, 20%, 30% of cement weight .
 8878 Jagannathan et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 8875–8879

4.) Concrete produced by partial replacement of cement by class f fly ash enriched with bacteria Bacillus
Pasteurii in concrete ( CCFBP). Specimens were cast by using f class f fly ash enriched with bacteria
Bacillus Pasteurii in 10%, 20%, 30% of cement weight.

3. Results and discussions

The results of compressive strength, Split tensile strength anf flexural strength of concrete specimens for
controlled concrete, concrete made with cement and fly ash and concrete made with cement and fly ash enriched
with bacteria Bacillus sphaericus and Bacillus Pasteurii are discussed .

3.1 Compressive strength

Compression tests were conducted on 100mm x 100mm x 100mm cubes to find the compressive strength of
concrete. The test results are tabulated in table 3
Table 3. Test results of compression test
Sl Percentage of Controlled Concrete made by Concrete made by replacing Concrete made by
No flyash in Cement cement and class f cement by class f flyash replacing cement by class
concrete Concrete (CC) flyash (CCF) In enriched with Bacillus f flyash enriched with
In N/mm2 N/mm2 sphaericus (CCFBS) Bacillus Pasturii (CCFBP)
In N/mm2 In N/mm2
1 0% 29.33 - - -
2 10% - 19.25 32.50 26.45
3 20% - 18.95 23.55 21.25
4 30% - 15.90 22.45 20.39
The results of compression test on cubes indicate that, when fly ash enriched with Bacillus sphaericus (CCFBS)
and Bacillus Pasteurii (CCFBP)are used for partial replacement of cement in concrete, have higher strength than
controlled concrete (CC) and Concrete made by cement and flyash (CCF).
The compressive strength of (CCFBS) is higher than (CCFBP) in all the proportions. The compressive strength of
CCFBS at 10% is higher than Controlled Concrete by 10.80%

3.2 Split Tensile Test

Split tensile tests were conducted on 100mm dia and 200mm long cylindrical specimens to find the split tensile
strength of concrete. The test results are tabulated in table 4

Table 4. Test results of Split Tensile Test

Sl Percentage of Controlled Concrete made by Concrete made by replacing Concrete made by

No flyash in Concrete cement and class cement by class f flyash replacing cement by
concrete (CC) f flyash (CCF) enriched with Bacillus class f flyash enriched
In N/mm2 In N/mm2 sphaericus (CCFBS) with Bacillus Pasturii
In N/mm2 (CCFBP) In N/mm2
1 0% 3.2 - - -
2 10% - 2.2 4.14 2.77
3 20% - 1.4 2.61 2.55
4 30% - 1.1 2.48 2.53
The split tensile strength of CCFBS concrete is higher than CCF and CCFBS concrete in all the proportions. The
Split tensile strength of CCFBS at 10% is higher than Controlled Concrete by 29.30% , this is very desired property
in concrete.

3.3 Flexural Strength

Flexural strength of concrete is found by testing concrete beams of size 500mm x 100mm x 100mm and testing it
by two point loading. The results are tabulated in table number 5.
 Jagannathan et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 8875–8879 8879

Table 5. Test results of Flexural Strength of Concrete Beam

Sl Percentage of Controlled Concrete made by Concrete made by replacing Concrete made by
No flyash in Concrete cement and class cement by class f flyash replacing cement by class
concrete (CC) 0f flyash enriched with Bacillus f flyash enriched with
In N/mm2 (CCF) sphaericus (CCFBS) Bacillus Pasturii
In N/mm2 In N/mm2 (CCFBP) In N/mm2
1 0% 3.33 - - -
2 10% - 1.66 3.50 2.12
3 20% - 1.33 2.17 2.11
4 30% - 1.16 1.85 1.85
The flexural strength of CCFBS concrete is higher than CCF and CCFBS concrete in all the proportions. The
Split tensile strength of CCFBS at 10% is higher than Controlled Concrete by 5.10%.
IS 456 vide 6.2.3 recommend the flexural strength fcr =0.7 ×√ fck. The controlled concrete has a flexural strength is
3.33N/mm2 and CCFBS 10% flexural strength is 3.50 N/mm2 which is more than calculated value equal to
3.13N/mm2 (fcr =0.7 ×√20=. 3.13N/mm2).

Conclusions
The compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength of concrete are enhanced by use of fly ash
enriched by Bacillus sphaericus is higher than controlled concrete and also higher than concrete enriched by
Bacillus Pasteurii in respective proportions. Use of flyash enriched with Bacillus sphaericus to replace cement in
concrete is advantages since it will be economical, reduce the emission of CO2 and saving in consumption of
electrical energy in production of cement concrete.

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