Comparison of the Ability of Two Bacteria to Improve the Behavior of Sandy Soil
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27, Issue 1
Abstract
This paper presents a laboratory study of the ability of two bacteria to improve the geomechanical properties of a sandy soil by calcium carbonate precipitation. The performance of two bacteria (Sporosarcina pasteurii and Idiomarina insulisalsae) is compared, based on unconfined compressive strength and splitting tensile strength tests. The effects of curing time and the concentration of I. insulisalsae on the strengthening process are also analyzed. Although the optimum environmental conditions for the bacterial growth were not adopted, the potential to improve the geomechanical properties of natural sandy soils is shown by the results. The bacteria I. insuliasalsae is shown to be more efficient than S. pasteurii in strengthening the soil, and increases in the concentration of I. isuliasalsae induce an increase in the geomechanical properties. However, this effect is not proportional to the amount of bacteria, probably due to a lack of nutrient.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the institutions that financially supported the research: CIEC, CICC, and FCT (PTDC/ECM/101875/2008).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27 • Issue 1 • January 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 26, 2014
Accepted: Jun 5, 2014
Published online: Jul 9, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 9, 2014
Published in print: Jan 1, 2015
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