New Trends on Bio-cementation and Self-healing Testing

In the last decade, a significant effort was made by research institutions and industry to change ordinary construction materials into green, smart, adaptive, and advanced materials. Green materials (for example bio-cement) are developed to reduce carbon footprint and waste, using biological agents replacing common binders. Smart materials can monitor their condition and respond to state changes as designed. Examples of smart materials are composite materials that can heal autonomously after structural damage occurs. Nevertheless, despite the disposition of the construction industry to accept innovations being at high, these green and smart materials will only prevail if they prove to be sustainable and useful in the long-term. To this, they need to be adequately characterized and the benefits in comparison with conventional materials assessed. However, the standardized methods and apparatus used to characterize the conventional materials are often not adequate to these materials, either because of their atypical composition, therefore requiring different tests (e.g., chemical analysis) or lack of standardized methods to evaluate the specific property. This chapter describes and discusses the recent developments in the testing of green materials such as bio-cemented and self-healing materials.