Sparse colonization and cultivation of bacteria on construction surfaces under zero-shear conditions
Laura Sullivan-Green, Charles Dowding,  Martina Hausner, Bruce Price

Abstract
This paper describes a method to evaluate microbial growth on solid surfaces under stationary feeding conditions and establish visualization and quantification methods on representative construction materials to provide a foundation for biological age dating of crack surfaces in construction materials that are sparsely colonized after exposure to the environment. Cultivating bacterial growth under stationary conditions, coupled to confocal laser scanning microscope techniques which were optimized to visualize accumulation directly on the colonization surface, assists in verifying foundational hypotheses for the expansion of a biomass quantification method for use in determining the age of a crack in construction materials, termed crack dating. Dating cracks can establish a timeline that may allow forensic engineers to link the crack to any atypical events occurring at the same time.

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