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Compression behavior of MICP-treated sand with various gradations

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Abstract

One-dimensional compression tests on quartz sands treated by microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) were carried out to evaluate the effects of gradation and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) content on compression behaviors. The experimental results reveal that the compressibility of specimens increases with increasing coefficient of uniformity or decreasing CaCO3 content. The evolution of void ratio with vertical stress could be generally characterized into three stages based on the underlying mechanisms. The initiation of bond breakage occurs around vertical stress of 0.036 MPa, and the dominating mechanism transits to particle breakage around vertical stress of 8.3 MPa. Scanning electron microscope analyses demonstrate that bonding effect and coating effect of CaCO3 precipitation are responsible for the lower compressibility of MICP-treated specimen. The presence of small particles leads to more interparticle CaCO3 bonds whose breakage would still allow the small particles to fill the intercoarse-grain voids.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41831282, 51922024, 52078085 and 51678094) and Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing, China (Grant No. cstc2019jcyjjqX0014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of Cities in Mountain Area, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Yang Xiao, Huanran Wu & Hanlong Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400030, China

    Yang Xiao, Huanran Wu & Hanlong Liu

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Yang Xiao, Chang Zhao, Yue Sun, Huanran Wu, Hui Chen & Hanlong Liu

  4. Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria

    Shun Wang

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  1. Yang Xiao
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Correspondence to Huanran Wu.

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Xiao, Y., Zhao, C., Sun, Y. et al. Compression behavior of MICP-treated sand with various gradations. Acta Geotech. 16, 1391–1400 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-020-01116-2

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