Self-Healing Bio-Concrete: Overview, Importance and Limitations

Concrete structures like all materials are prone to natural or anthropogenic degradation and deterioration over time as they have rather low tensile strength. In the case of structural materials, long-term degradation creates microcracks which increases permeability and eventually lead to failure. As a result, mending is required to improve material reliability and longevity. Maintenance of concrete structure is a process that is required to be done by inspecting and repairing on regular basis to ensure that the structure is in a well-working condition, has a longer service life and allows for early identification of defects. However, there are structures that have the process of their maintenance hard to reach and thus put the human life in danger. Therefore, self-healing concrete plays a major role in protecting the human-life, by maintaining the structure through self-repairing the cracks without external aid. In addition, self-healing concrete allows for the improvement of the mechanical strength. On the other side, its essential to have a keen understanding about the various microbiological technologies used for self-healing concrete. This paper presents an overview of microbiological technologies, their use in today's applications, and the limitations of bio self-healing concrete which are important for in-depth understanding of the self-healing techniques for future research.