Performance of Bacterial Concrete Incorporated with Grains of Sugarcane Fibres

Abstract

newline i newlineABSTRACT newlineMost of the failure of concrete elements are due to cracks of width less than newline5mm. Bacterial concrete is one of the methods of rectifying the micro-cracks newlinedeveloped in the structural elements made of concrete. As the bacteria heals the newlinecracks in its natural, eco- friendly way, in order to enhance the healing process and newlineto feed the bacteria for its effective work, sugarcane fibre grains were added to the newlinebacterial concrete. The effectiveness of the bacteria was enhanced with the presence newlineof sugar. But at the same time, higher percentage of sugar will increase the newlinetemperature during hydration. Therefore, squeezed sugarcane fibre grains having newlinelesser percentage of sweetness were used which enhanced the healing process of newlinebacteria. newlineIn this research, the overall behaviour of concrete with respect to strength newlineand durability of concrete using Bacillus subtilis and the sugarcane fibres were newlineexperimentally investigated and compared with the conventional concrete. The first newlinephase of this study focuses on the compressive strength and the split tensile strength newlineof the bacterial concrete containing different cell concentrations of Bacillus subtilis newlinein liquid form with replacement of fine aggregate using 0.1% and 0.5% of newlinesugarcane fibres (passing through 4.75mm sieve). From the experimental work, it newlinewas found that the compressive strength and split tensile strength were found to be newlinemaximum at 0.1% replacement of fine aggregate using sugarcane fibres with a cell newlineconcentration of 106. The optimimum percentage replacement of fine aggregates newlinewith sugarcane fibres of grain size less than 4.75 mm was found to be 0.1 % and that newlinewas used for the remaining phases of the work.