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Abstract
Concrete is most commonly used construction material which is strong in compression and weak in tension. The major drawback of concrete is formation of cracks, which affects the serviceability of concrete. When the applied load exceeds the limit, cracks develops on the structure through which water, salts and other foreign matters enters into the concrete and leads to the failure of the structure. Bacterially induced Calcium carbonate precipitation has been proposed as an environmental friendly technique which can remediate cracks in concrete. Metabolic activities of bacteria in concrete can improve overall performance of concrete. Micro cracks developing the material during its manufacture due to inherent volumetric and micro structural changes. Hence it is necessary to impart tensile resistance properties to concrete structural members to use it as a load bearing material. The tensile strength of the concrete can be improved by adding fibres in the concrete. Addition of fibres would act as crack resistor and would substantially improve static and dynamic properties. For the improvement of pore structure in concrete the Bacillus Pasteurii bacteria of concentrations 106 is used. Bacillus species are aerobic spore forming gram positive bacteria with specialized thick walled dormant cells, viable for more than 200 years under dry condition. Incorporation of calcite precipitating bacteria to concrete in certain concentrations so that the bacteria will precipitate calcium carbonate when it comes in contact with water and this precipitate will heal the cracks. To improve tensile strength Polyester fibers are used. Polyester is environmental friendly and non hazardous. It easily disperses and separates in the mix. It prevents the micro shrinkage cracks developed during hydration, making the structure inherently stronger. In this project an experimental investigation is carried out to study the properties of polyester fiber reinforced bacillus pasteurii bacterial concrete.