Guillermo Alexander Riveros, Abouzar Sadrekarimi,

Liquefaction resistance of Fraser River sand improved by a microbially-induced

cementation,
Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering,
Volume 131,
2020,
106034,
ISSN 0267-7261,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2020.106034.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0267726119308991)
Abstract: Microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) harnesses the natural
metabolic action of bacteria to induce the precipitation of calcium carbonate and
alter soil engineering properties. This paper presents the results of using MICP to
improve the cyclic resistance of Fraser River sand specimens. The formation of
calcite cementation among sand particles is confirmed using scanning electron
microscopic images and X-ray compositional analysis of cemented sand clusters. The
results show that the velocity of a shear wave (VS) traveling through the specimen
starts to increase just as the calcium solution is introduced into each specimen.
Liquefaction resistance of sand samples is subsequently measured in a series of
cyclic direct simple shear tests. MICP-treated samples exhibit cyclic resistances
of up to 67% higher than those of the untreated sand. Post-liquefaction volumetric
strain and changes in cyclic resistance in a repeated cyclic loading are also
assessed and compared for the original and the treated sand specimens.
Keywords: Cyclic simple shear test; Liquefaction resistance; Microbial-induced
calcite precipitation; Shear wave velocity