Abstract
Microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is a novel ground improvement method to increase strength and stiffness of sand using natural biogeochemical processes. Cementation level and confining pressure are two important factors that control the behavior of MICP sand. The monotonic mechanical response of MICP cemented sand is systematically investigated using four cementation levels (untreated, lightly treated, moderately treated, and heavily treated) and three levels of effective confining pressure (100, 200, and 400 kPa). The results indicate that the stiffness, peak shear strength, and dilation increases with an increase in calcite content at a given effective confining pressure and the dilation is suppressed with an increase in effective confining pressure. This behavior is consistent with soil-like behavior; therefore, all the MICP soils presented herein are evaluated using critical-state soil mechanics and not an analogous fracture-mechanics framework. The experimental results also indicate that the improvement in peak and residual friction angles and initial elastic modulus, , are dependent on the levels of cementation and effective confining pressure. The uniformity of MICP cementation in the laboratory specimens is also discussed.
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Acknowledgments
Funding and support from North Carolina State University Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, and Faculty Research and Professional Development fund are greatly appreciated. The authors are grateful for the valuable comments from Professors Jason DeJong and Matt Evans. The authors would also like to thank Charles B. Mooney from the NCSU Analytical Instrumentation Facility for operating the scanning electron microscope.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 1 • January 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 27, 2014
Accepted: Jun 4, 2015
Published online: Jul 8, 2015
Discussion open until: Dec 8, 2015
Published in print: Jan 1, 2016
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