Geo-Congress 2020
Examining the Liquefaction Resistance of Lightly Cemented Sands Using Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP)
Publication: Geo-Congress 2020: Biogeotechnics (GSP 320)
ABSTRACT
Microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP), or bio-cementation, is a bio-mediated, environmentally-conscious soil improvement technology that can improve the engineering properties of granular soils through the precipitation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) on soil particle surfaces and contacts. While past studies have shown the potential of bio-cementation to improve the resistance of granular soils to earthquake-induced soil liquefaction, the spectrum of behaviors during the transition from the uncemented to lightly cemented conditions has remained poorly characterized. In this study, a series of direct simple shear tests were performed to improve our understanding of the effect of CaCO3 bio-cementation on the liquefaction triggering and post-triggering strain accumulation behavior of loose sands. A poorly-graded Ottawa F-65 sand material was treated to varying degrees of very light bio-cementation and subjected to undrained cyclic shearing events. All specimens were cemented and sheared under a vertical effective stress of 100 kPa and subjected to cyclic stress ratios (CSR) of 0.1 and 0.2. During these tests, shear wave velocity (Vs) measurements were completed to non-destructively monitor cementation progression and degradation during shearing. Results suggest that even very light levels of bio-cementation (ΔVs ≈ 0 to 100 m/s) can significantly increase the number of cycles needed to trigger soil liquefaction (3% single amplitude shear strain), e.g., a 10-fold increase in the number of cycles needed to trigger liquefaction was observed when Vs values were increased by only 25 m/s. Despite this significant improvement in small-strain pre-triggering behavior, little improvement was observed with respect to strain accumulation before and after initial triggering. While additional testing is needed, results from this study can improve our understanding of the behavior of lightly bio-cemented and naturally-cemented soils subjected to earthquake-induced undrained cyclic loading.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The presented study involves work supported by the University of Washington and the Engineering Research Center Program of the National Science Foundation under NSF Cooperative Agreement No. EEC-1449501. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2020: Biogeotechnics (GSP 320)
Pages: 53 - 64
Editors: Edward Kavazanjian Jr., Ph.D., Arizona State University, James P. Hambleton, Ph.D., Northwestern University, Roman Makhnenko, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Aaron S. Budge, Ph.D., Minnesota State University, Mankato
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8283-4
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Feb 21, 2020
Published in print: Feb 21, 2020
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Cement
- Clays
- Climates
- Concrete
- Engineering materials (by type)
- Environmental engineering
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Granular soils
- Materials engineering
- Meteorology
- Pollution
- Precipitation
- Soil cement
- Soil dynamics
- Soil liquefaction
- Soil mechanics
- Soil pollution
- Soil properties
- Soil stabilization
- Soil treatment
- Soils (by type)
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