Construction of Water Pond Using Bioslurry-Induced Biocementation
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 34, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper presents a methodology to construct a water pond in sand using bioslurry layer via the microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) process. Bioslurry is calcium carbonate crystals containing high-urease active bacteria cells, allowing further microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation when introducing cementation solutions (urea and calcium ions). With the effect of a top sand layer, the daily seepage rate of the water pond was dramatically reduced to through four rounds of treatments with of cementation solution. In this way, a bioslurry-based waterproofing layer was formed for the construction of a water pond. Due to the bonding strength gained from calcium carbonate crystal precipitation, the flexural strength of bioslurry layer was in the range of 3.6–4.2 MPa. This is sufficient to support the hydrostatic pressure and avoid bending for water pond. With the low seepage rate and high flexural strength, the proposed bioslurry layer is a promising method for the construction of a fishpond in sand; other potential applications include stabilization of sand dunes and concrete healing.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The work was supported partially by Grant No. MOE2015-T2-2-142 provided by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, and the Centre for Urban Solutions, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 34 • Issue 3 • March 2022
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 3, 2021
Accepted: Jul 7, 2021
Published online: Dec 22, 2021
Published in print: Mar 1, 2022
Discussion open until: May 22, 2022
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