Author(s)

Sudipta Majumdar, Manas Sarkar, Trinath Chowdhury, Brajadulal Chattopadhyay, Saroj Mandal

Department of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.

Concrete, widely used construction material suffers from cracks and low tensile strength that cut down the load capacity resulting in shortening of self-life. Biologically modified construction materials become more popular for higher strength and long-term sustainability. This investigation deals with the compressive and flexural strengths increment of a novel bacterial protein (bioremediase) incorporated pozzolana cement based mortar specimens. This protein also increases durability and crack repairing attributes that is more effective in pozzolana cement. Higher constituent percentage of silicate in pozzolana cement leads to higher silica leaching activity within the matrix manifesting of higher strength and durability of the samples. Eco-friendliness and wide range temperature stability lead added advantage to the protein for potential additive in high performance concrete technology. This means in practice that a substantial part of the cement of the mortar/concrete mixtures can be left out while still obtaining needed final strength. This would substantially improve the ecological footprint (sustainability) of mortar/concrete, as it is particularly cement that causes (during its production) massive CO2 emission what negatively affects the global climate (significantly contributes to global warming).

Compressive Strength; Durability; Microbial Protein; Pozzolana Cement

S. Majumdar, M. Sarkar, T. Chowdhury, B. Chattopadhyay and S. Mandal, "Use of Bacterial Protein Powder in Commercial Fly Ash Pozzolana Cements for High Performance Construction Materials," Open Journal of Civil Engineering, Vol. 2 No. 4, 2012, pp. 218-228. doi: 10.4236/ojce.2012.24029.