A review and bibliometric study of bacteria-based self-healing of concrete

Concrete, being the most widely used material for construction, has very limited tensile strength which makes it susceptible to development of cracks at early and later stages which is detrimental to the concrete causing severe damage to the structure. Self-healing concrete is an emerging technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way buildings and structures are built. Traditional repair methods are not always feasible, but self-healing concrete has the potential to extend the life of the concrete and reduce repair costs. The advantages of self-healing concrete include increased structural integrity, improved durability, and reduced maintenance costs. Out of four primary self-healing mechanisms such as healing through admixtures, polymer, epoxy, and bacteria, this paper reviews the bacterial healing of concrete cracks. The parameters considered for comparison of bacterial efficiency in healing specimens are compressive strength, flexure strength, crack-filling ability, water absorption, and sorptivity. The study also shows the effect of nutrient type on the bacterial concrete. The study shows that bacterial-based self-healed concrete develops better compressive strength, have higher crack-filling ability but have more or less same tensile strength compared to control specimens. Also, bacteria with polypropylene fibers embedded has the highest crack-filling ability according to the literature considered and bacteria with calcium sulfoaluminate achieved better compressive strength.