1611

NOTE
Tensile strength of sands treated with microbially induced
carbonate precipitation
Ashkan Nafisi, Douglas Mocelin, Brina M. Montoya, and Shane Underwood

Abstract: During large earthquake events where bending moments within soil cements are induced, the tensile strength of
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cemented soil may govern the deformational behavior of improved ground. Several studies have been conducted to assess the
tensile strength of artificially cemented sands that use Portland cement or gypsum; however, the tensile strength of microbially
induced carbonate precipitation (MICP)-treated sands with various particle sizes measured through direct tension tests has not
been evaluated. MICP is a biomediated improvement technique that binds soil particles through carbonate precipitation. In this
study, the tensile strength of nine specimens were measured by conducting direct tension tests. Three types of sand (coarse,
medium, and fine) were cemented to reach a heavy level of cementation (e.g., shear wave velocity of ⬃900 m/s or higher). The
results show that the tensile strength varies between 210 and 710 kPa depending on sand type and mass of carbonate. Unconfined
compressive strength (UCS) tests were performed for each sand type to assess the ratio between tensile strength and UCS in
MICP-treated sands. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and surface energy measurements were used to determine the
predominant failure mode at particle contacts under tensile loading condition.

Key words: bio-cementation, MICP, tensile strength, unconfined compressive strength (UCS).

Résumé : Pendant les tremblements de terre de grande ampleur où lors de moments de flexion dans de ciments de sol induits,
la résistance à la traction du sol cimenté peut régir le comportement de déformation d’un sol amélioré. Plusieurs études ont été
For personal use only.

réalisées pour évaluer la résistance à la traction des sables cimentés artificiellement utilisant du ciment Portland ou du gypse;
cependant, la résistance à la traction de sables traités par précipitation carbonatée induite par des microorganismes (MICP) dont
la taille de particules varie, mesurée par essai de tension directe n’a pas été évaluée. Le MICP est une technique d’amélioration
biomédiée reliant les particules du sol par précipitation carbonatée. Dans cette étude, la résistance à la traction de neuf
éprouvettes a été mesurée par des essais de traction directe. Trois types de sable (grossier, moyen et fin) ont été cimentés afin
d’atteindre un niveau élevé de scellement (p. ex. vitesse de l’onde de cisaillement de ⬃900 m/s ou plus). Les résultats démontrent
que la résistance à la traction varie entre 210 et 710 kPa selon le type de sable et selon la masse de carbonate. Des essais de
résistance à la compression sans confinement ont été réalisés pour chaque type de sable dans le but d’évaluer le rapport entre
la résistance à la traction et la résistance à la compression sans confinement dans les sables traités au MICP. Des images la
microscopie électronique à balayage (MEB) et des mesures de l’énergie de surface ont été utilisées pour déterminer le mode de
défaillance prédominant aux contacts de particules soumis à la charge de traction. [Traduit par la Rédaction]

Mots-clés : biocimentation, MICP, résistance à la traction, résistance non confinée à la compression (UCS).

1. Introduction Direct tension, bending, and Brazilian (splitting tensile) tests

Tensile strength is an important parameter that governs the
behavior of cemented sands in some special cases. As an example,
Namikawa et al. (2007) evaluated the dynamic behavior of lattice-
shaped ground improvement in artificially cemented sand through
a finite element analysis and concluded that tensile failure hap-
pens at the corners of the cemented zone. Consoli et al. (2003)
showed that improved layers of soils start to fail under tensile
stresses in soil–cement mixtures. Tensile cracks and bending ten-
sile failure are reported in soils cemented using deep mixing
method (Kitazume and Maruyama 2007). Boulanger et al. (2018)
numerically simulated centrifuge model tests of an embankment
on a liquefiable sand layer treated by soil–cement walls and found
that tension cracks were fully developed in soil–cement walls
during large shaking events. These examples of soil–cement walls
illustrate tensile strength of cemented sand performance.
are used to estimate the tensile strength of cemented soils (Das
et al. 1995; Namikawa and Koseki 2007). In the direct tension test,
tensile loading is applied to a cylindrical specimen along the axis
of symmetry until it fails, and then the tensile strength is calcu-
lated based on the measured load and the sectional area of the
specimen. Tensile strength can also be measured by applying a
point load at the center of a simple supported beam (i.e., in bend-
ing). The Brazilian test measures the tensile strength indirectly by
applying a compressional force along the entire length of the
specimen, thus inducing tensile stresses in the diametrical direc-
tion. Namikawa and Koseki (2007) used analytical simulations of
the three tensile loading scenarios and compared the simulations
with experimental results. They found direct tension is the most
accurate method among the three approaches to assess the tensile
strength, while the bending test overestimates and the Brazilian
test underestimates the tensile strength. Dass et al. (1994) com-

Received 3 April 2019. Accepted 23 October 2019.

A. Nafisi. Terracon Consultants Inc., Germantown, MD, USA.
D. Mocelin, B.M. Montoya, and S. Underwood. Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, NC, USA.
Corresponding author: Ashkan Nafisi (email: ashkan.nafisi@terracon.com).
Copyright remains with the author(s) or their institution(s). Permission for reuse (free in most cases) can be obtained from copyright.com.

Can. Geotech. J. 57: 1611–1616 (2020) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2019-0230 Published at www.nrcresearchpress.com/cgj on 1 November 2019.
 1612
Table 1. Physical properties of sands.
Sand Ottawa 20-30 Ottawa 50-70
D50 (mm) 0.72 0.22
Cu 1.17 1.40
Cc 1.02 0.90
Gs 2.65 2.65
emin 0.50 0.55
emax 0.74 0.87
Note: D50, mean particle size; Cu, coefficient of uniformity;
Cc, coefficient of curvature; Gs, specific gravity of solid soil particles;
emin and emax, minimum and maximum void ratios, respectively.
pared the tensile strength of Portland cemented sands with ce-
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ment content varying from 4% to 8% through direct tensile and
Brazilian tests. They also found that the Brazilian test underesti-
mates the tensile strength.
Several studies have evaluated the tensile strength of artificially
and naturally cemented sands. Das et al. (1995) measured the ten-
sile strength of a fine-grained sand artificially cemented with Type
I Portland cement. Brazilian tension tests were conducted to mea-
sure tensile strengths of about 140 to 300 kPa, depending upon
the cement content, which ranged from 4% to 8% by weight.
Namikawa et al. (2017) conducted a series of direct tension tests on
artificially cemented sand under confinements, which ranged
from 30 to 500 kPa. They concluded that tensile failure happens at
low confinements, while shear failure occurs at high confine-
ments. Tensile strength as high as 350 kPa was reported for ce-
mented sand with more than 10% of cement content (Consoli et al.
For personal use only.
2010). Tensile strength of naturally cemented carbonate sand was
assessed varying from 50 to 500 kPa, based on the cement content
and density of the soil (Airey 1993). Choi et al. (2016) conducted the
Brazilian test on fiber reinforced, bio-cemented sands and found
that tensile and unconfined strengths increase as the fiber con-
tent increases. The tensile strength of sands treated with micro-
bially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), measured through
direct tension test in sand types with different particle sizes, has
not been evaluated. Knowing that the behavior of MICP-treated
sands and other types of cemented sands (naturally and artifi-
cially) are not necessarily similar (Ismail et al. 2002), it is essential
to measure the tensile strength of MICP-treated sands to have a
reliable assessment.
MICP is a promising improvement technique, which has the
potential to improve shear strength, stiffness, volumetric behav-
ior, compressibility, and erodibility (DeJong et al. 2006; Whiffin
et al. 2007; Van Paassen et al. 2010; Lin et al. 2015; Montoya and
DeJong 2015; Montoya et al. 2018; Terzis and Laloui 2019; Zamani
and Montoya 2019). In addition, MICP can improve the leaching
behavior of contaminated soils or coal combustion residual in a
more eco-friendly and economic manner than conventional tech-
niques (Safavizadeh 2017). In this technique, urea is hydrolyzed to
ammonia and carbonate by ureolytic bacteria. In the presence of
calcium ions, the generated carbonate reacts with calcium, and
calcium carbonate precipitates. In some cases, the concentration
of urea is selected to be higher than the concentration of calcium
in the injecting solution to improve the efficiency of the MICP
process (Martinez 2012). Under this circumstance, the excessive
produced carbonate in the system increases the pH of the effluent
solution. Therefore, measuring the pH of the effluent solution
may be used as a tool to monitor the performance of the bacteria
in the soil media and cementation process when an unbalanced
recipe is used for the injecting solution. Precipitation of carbonate
leads to the binding and roughening of sand particles (DeJong
et al. 2010). MICP improves the tensile strength of the sands, but
the amount of improvement is still unknown. In the study pre-
sented herein, the tensile behavior of MICP-treated sand is evalu-
ated by conducting nine direct tension tests on three types of
sand. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) was measured for
Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 57, 2020
Table 2. Chemical recipes.
Nevada Biological Cementation
solution solution
0.12
1.70 Chemical (mmol/L) (mmol/L)
1.24 Urea 333 333
2.65 NH4Cl 374 374
0.56 CaCl2 — 100
0.86
three specimens to assess the ratio between tensile strength and
UCS.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sand properties and sample preparation
Properties of the sand types used in this study are tabulated in
Table 1. The specimens were prepared and treated in 50 mL vials
without applying any surcharge or vertical loads during the treat-
ment. The height of vials (from tip to top) was ⬃110 mm and the
diameter was 25 mm. Two lines were connected to the top and
bottom of the vials to inject and collect the solutions. Two filters
(Porex) were also put at the top and bottom of the vials to keep the
sand particles in place. All specimens were prepared using air
pluviation at relative density of about 40%. The diameter and
height of the specimens were 25 and 75 mm, respectively. After
treatment, the specimens were flushed with tap water to remove
residual salts. The tips of vials were then cut with a band saw, and
the specimens were extruded carefully by applying uniform load
to the bottom of the specimens. To minimize any potential dam-
age, the vials were cut from a place that did not have any contact
with the cemented sand (just below the bottom filter). The speci-
mens were extruded carefully and smoothly to avoid cracking
during extrusion. The specimens were oven-dried 24 h before the
tensile strength and UCS measurements.
2.2. Bio-cementation process
Biological treatment was performed by using the Sporosarcina
pasteurii bacterium, prepared by following the method described
in Mortensen et al. (2011). The final optical density (OD600) of the
bacterial suspension was between 0.8 and 1.2, which corresponds
to about 1 × 106 cells/mL based on a lab-specific OD to total cells
correlation. A two-phase injection method was used for treat-
ments. The treatment process was initiated by injecting a biolog-
ical solution (containing the bacteria) with a retention time of 4 to
6 h followed by injecting two pore volumes of cementation solu-
tion. Table 2 shows the chemical recipes for biological and cemen-
tation solutions. Before injecting the cementation solution at
each step, 0.4 pore volumes of a solution containing 333 mmol/L
of urea was injected to prevent immediate precipitation of car-
bonate (CaCO3) near the injection points. Cementation treat-
ments were repeated in 6–6–12 h intervals. The direction of
injection was alternately changed from top to bottom and bottom
to top to improve the uniformity of carbonate distribution. The
solutions were injected using a peristaltic pump with the flow rate
of 10 mL/min.
Since a pH of about 9 could indicate that bacteria are actively
hydrolyzing urea, and a pH of about 7 might be an indication that
the ureolytic activity is less active in the soil (for the chemical
recipe used here in this study), the pH was measured after each
treatment. For cases in which the pH dropped from 9 to 7, a small
amount of bacteria was injected in the specimens with cementa-
tion solution to increase the activity of bacteria inside the speci-
men (Feng and Montoya 2015; Martinez 2012). During this process,
a low density of ureolytic microbes with concentration of about
4 × 104 cells/mL was added to the cementation solution to increase
the bacterial activity inside the specimen.
Published by NRC Research Press
 Nafisi et al. 1613

Table 3. Characteristics of specimens.

Loading Test No. of CaCO3 content (%) Failure Strength Failure
mode No. Sand injections (top, bottom, mean) location (kPa) strain (%)
Tension 1 Ottawa 20-30 25 (4.8, 6.1, 5.5) Top third 640 0.017
2 Ottawa 20-30 25 (4.9, 5.6, 5.2) Top third 600 0.026
3 Ottawa 20-30 25 (3.2, 4.4, 3.8) Top third 310 0.029
4 Ottawa 50-70 30 (9.1, 11.9, 10.5) Middle third 710 0.027
5 Ottawa 50-70 30 (8.4, 7.7, 8.0) Middle third 480 0.026
6 Ottawa 50-70 30 (7.9, 6.4, 7.1) Bottom third 370 0.030
7 Nevada 40 (12.9, 14.1, 13.5) Middle third 490 0.027
8 Nevada 40 (15.2, 13.6, 14.4) Bottom third 480 0.039
9 Nevada 40 (12.7, 15.5, 14.1) Top third 210 0.037
Compression 10 Ottawa 20-30 25 (NA, 6.5, 6.5)* Inclined 2500 0.21
11 Ottawa 50-70 30 (10.2, 11.5, 10.8) Inclined 3040 0.36
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12 Nevada 40 (13.7, 14.1, 13.9) Inclined 2600 0.28

*NA, not available.

2.3. Cementation degree 2.5. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images

All of the specimens were treated to reach a heavy level of
cementation, which resembles rock behavior with normalized
shear wave velocity (Vs1) of 900 m/s or higher (Montoya and DeJong
2015; Nafisi et al. 2020). The specimens were treated to a number
of treatments depending on the particle size. Since the shear wave
velocity was not measured in this study, the number of treat-
ments were chosen based on the authors’ experience in monitor-
ing the shear wave velocity during the course of treatment in
triaxial specimens for the sand types (Nafisi 2019; Nafisi et al.
2020). Table 3 shows the treatment numbers for each specimen.
Since a Vs1 above 900 m/s was intended for all specimens, a higher
For personal use only.
SEM images were taken from the failure surfaces to find the
failure mode under tensile load condition using a Hitachi S3200N
Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope. Aggregates of
cemented sand from the exposed failure surface were carefully
cut and removed from the specimen to be used in the SEM images.
The SEM samples were cut from the center of the specimen using
a sharp blade, then placed on carbide tape on the sample stub for
SEM images with the failure surface exposed for imaging. Owing
to the level of cementation, the aggregates used for imaging were
workable and not friable during SEM sample preparation. The
samples were coated with gold–palladium alloy to decrease charg-

number of treatments (and mass of carbonate) was needed as the
sand particle size reduces (Nafisi et al. 2020). Therefore, the Ne-
vada sand specimens were treated 40 times, whereas the Ottawa
20-30 sand specimens were treated 25 times to reach the heavy
level of cementation.
2.4. Direct tension and unconfined compressive strength
(UCS) tests
Both direct tension and UCS tests were conducted using an MTS
810 machine that was programmed to apply a constant actuator
rate displacement. During the test, the applied force and actuator
displacements were recorded for later analysis. The rate of dis-
placement was 0.015 mm/min (equivalent to mean specimen strain of
0.02%/min) and 0.15 mm/min (equivalent to mean specimen strain
of 0.2%/min) for tension and UCS tests, respectively. The rate of
displacement for tension was selected based on Japanese Geotech-
nical Society standard JGS2552-2015 (Japanese Geotechnical Society
Standards 2015). The same rate is used to measure tensile strength of
Portland cemented sands through direct tensile test in the litera-
ture (Namikawa et al. 2017). The rate of applying load in UCS in
similar studies is about 0.1 to 1%/min (Van Paassen et al. 2010;
Qabany and Soga 2013). To account for the machine compliance, a
pilot test was carried out by first instrumenting a specimen with
surface-mounted LVDTs (linear variable differential transform-
ers). Measurements of the force, on-specimen displacement, and
actuator displacements were used to calibrate the machine com-
pliance factors, which were then used on the subsequent tests. For
the subsequent tests, displacements were measured by the actua-
tor LVDTs installed on the MTS machine.
To perform the tensile tests, the specimens were attached to the
machine actuator by gluing the specimens ends to metal plates
and then attaching the plates to the machine actuator. A gluing jig
was used to ensure the proper alignment of the specimens and
also ensure parallelism of the plates. The glue used was a plastic
steel putty composite that allowed a fast (5 min) curing period.
This procedure was also used for the compression tests to ensure
homogeneous load distribution on the specimen–plate contact.
All the specimens were oven-dried for 24 h before gluing and
testing.
ing during imaging.
2.6. Mass of carbonate
Carbonate content was determined using a gravimetric acid-
washing method. After the completion of each test, the specimens
were divided into two sections along the length. Each section was
washed with 1 mol/L HCl. The mass of carbonate was calculated by
measuring the difference between oven-dried mass (at 110 °C) of
the soil sample before and after acid-washing.
2.7. Surface energy measurements
Surface energy measurements are currently used to determine
the cohesive and adhesive characteristics of asphalt-binder and
asphalt-aggregate systems (Bhasin and Little 2007). Generally, the
surface energy of a material is defined as the amount of work
needed to create a unit area of the material and is calculated by
knowing the contact angle between the material surface and a
drop of probe fluids. Indeed, works of cohesion and adhesion
represent the energy required for microcracks to propagate
within calcium carbonate bonds and at the interface of silica–
calcium carbonate, respectively, regardless of the particle geom-
etry and the localized stress at particle contacts. Indeed, these
analyses assume equal stresses would be present at all locations.
To measure the contact angle, the sessile drop method was used
(Koc and Bulut 2014). Three different fluids (water, glycerol, and
ethylene glycol) were dropped on a silica aggregate plate and a
sheet of MICP–calcium carbonate (three drops per each fluid and
each material). To prepare MICP–calcium carbonate sheets, the
mixture of bacterial cultures and cementation solution (shown in
Table 2) was poured into a weighing dish. The solution inside the
weighing dish was replaced in 6–6–12 h intervals. The thickness of
precipitated calcium carbonate on the bottom of the dish gradu-
ally increased so that calcium carbonate sheets were formed. The
formed sheets were detached from the plastic dish and used for
the tests in the study. Geologic silica sheet was used for the mea-
surements on silica.
The total surface energy (␥total) of any material consists of three
component: (1) the van der Waals or the dispersive component

Published by NRC Research Press

 1614
Fig. 1. Tensile strength of (a) Ottawa 20-30; (b) Ottawa 50-70; and (c) Nevada sands. [Colour online.]
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from cdnsciencepub.com by TU DELFT LIBRARY on 03/28/24
(␥LW); (2) the Lewis acid component (␥+); and (3) the Lewis base
component (␥−).
(1) ␥total ⫽ ␥LW ⫹ ␥AB ⫽ ␥LW ⫹ 2兹␥⫹␥⫺
These components were calculated for MICP–calcium carbon-
ate and silica based on measured contact angles, known surface
tension parameters of the fluids, and Young–Dupré equation
(Carré 2007; Van Oss et al. 1988).
Knowing these components, work of cohesion within calcium
C
carbonate bonds 共WCaCO 3
兲 and adhesion between silica and cal-
A
cium carbonate 共WSiCaCO3兲 were obtained through the following
equations:
For personal use only.
(2) C
WCaCO 3
⫽ 2␥CaCO
total
3
兹␥ 兹␥ 兹␥
⫹ ⫺ ⫺ +
Si ␥CaCO3 Si␥CaCO3 Si␥CaCO3
A LW LW
(3) WSiCaCO 3
⫽2 ⫹2 ⫹2
In these equations, calcium carbonate and silica are denoted by
CaCO3 and Si, respectively.
3. Results and discussion
Nine direct tension tests were conducted to assess the tensile
strength of MICP-treated sand, the results of which are illustrated
in Fig. 1 and tabulated in Table 3. The results show that the tensile
strength improves substantially in all three sand types, and it
increases as the carbonate content increases. The measured ten-
sile strengths were within the range of 210 to 710 kPa. The axial
strain at failure (␧f) ranged from 0.02% to 0.04% for the specimens,
which is in the same range of ␧f for Portland cemented sands
previously reported (Das et al. 1995; Namikawa et al. 2017). The
stress–strain response of the specimens demonstrates softening
behavior. Based on visual observations during testing, small
cracks were initiated approximately at the peak strength and then
propagated with continued load until the specimen was sepa-
rated. The Nevada-3 specimen showed a lower tensile strength
than other specimens. Since the carbonate content in this speci-
men is not remarkably lower than that in other specimens
(Table 3), it is speculated that the specimen was damaged either
during extrusion or gluing processes. In general, the observed
variation of tensile strength is dependent on the amount of car-
bonate mineral precipitated in the specimens over the range of
carbonate contents in this study, as demonstrated in Fig. 2. The
Ottawa 20-30-3 specimen showed about 300 kPa lower of the ten-
sile strength compared with the two other Ottawa 20-30 speci-
mens, which can be attributed to its lower carbonate content
(about 1.5% lower as shown in Table 3). The same trend was ob-
served for the Ottawa 50-70 sand specimens in which 3.4% differ-
ence in the average carbonate content resulted in ⬃340 kPa
difference in the tensile strength (test Nos. 4 and 6). The authors
Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 57, 2020
Fig. 2. Variation of tensile strength versus average carbonate content.
[Colour online.]
cannot comment on the sensitivity of the tensile strength to car-
bonate content in the sand types, considering the limited data
herein. Any decisive conclusion about the sensitivity of tensile
strength to carbonate content needs further investigation. How-
ever, it is hypothesized that the higher number of particle con-
tacts in the Nevada sand specimens (due to the finer size and the
higher angularity of Nevada sand particles) may influence the
sensitivity. If it is assumed that the mass of carbonate is distrib-
uted to each particle contact, a difference in carbonate content in
the Nevada sand specimen may result in less change in carbonate
at each contact compared with coarser sands, such as Ottawa
20-30 sand. The precipitated carbonate in the top and bottom
sections are also presented in Table 3. The mean carbonate con-
tent varied from 3.8% to 14.4%. Nevada sand specimens have
higher carbonate content than the other two sand types due to
the higher number of treatments; however, the average tensile
strength is almost similar for all three sand types. This is consis-
tent with the reported peak shear strength under isotropically
consolidated drained compression loading of these three sand
types with similar cementation levels (Nafisi et al. 2020).
Although the number of treatments for a given sand type was
the same, the precipitated carbonate is different, which might
stem from varying bacteria activity from one batch to another or
the presence of preferential paths during the course of treatment.
These variations highlight the imperative of monitoring the ce-
mentation process in real time in a nondestructive manner, such
as measuring the shear wave velocity of the material (e.g., DeJong
et al. 2010; Nafisi et al. 2020).
To determine the predominant mode of failure at particle con-
tacts, surface energy measurements and SEM were used. Adhesive
(failure at the interface of carbonate and sand particle) and cohe-
sive (failure within the carbonate bonds) modes of failure are two
possibilities at particle contacts (DeJong et al. 2010; Montoya and
Feng 2015). The predominant failure mode under tension loads
was first intended to be investigated visually with the aid of SEM
Published by NRC Research Press
 Nafisi et al.
Table 4. Work of cohesion (WC) and adhesion (WA) of calcium carbonate and silica.
Material ␥AB (mJ/m2) ␥LW (mJ/m2)
Calcium carbonate 3.1 38.3
Silica 6.2 37.0
Note: Results for silica are from Feng (2015).
Fig. 3. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) measurements.
[Colour online.]
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For personal use only.
images; however, SEM images did not provide any reliable infor-
mation, so they are not presented in this paper. Additionally, any
conclusion regarding the predominant mode of failure based on
SEM images requires statistical studies to analyze an extensive
number of SEM images, which is beyond the scope of this study.
Moreover, determining the mode of failure visually based on im-
ages and the shape of calcium carbonate at contacts can be sub-
jective. Therefore, the work of cohesion and adhesion of the MICP
calcite–silica system was calculated through surface energy mea-
surements and Young–Dupré equation (Van Oss et al. 1988) so that
the predominant mode of failure can be determined quantita-
tively. Although any decisive conclusion requires a more in-depth
study (numerically and experimentally), surface energy measure-
ments give an insight on the mode of failure under tensile loads.
Table 4 presents the adhesion and cohesion work for the MICP
calcium carbonate–silica system. WC and WA show the work of
cohesion and adhesion, respectively. According to the values, co-
hesive failure is more likely to happen at the particle contact since
C C A C
WCaCO 3
has the least value among WSi , WSiCaCO 3
, and WCaCO 3
, which
means that microcracks initiate and propagate within the cal-
cium carbonate bonds before they initiate at the interface be-
tween calcium carbonate and silica.
Note that the lower work of cohesion does not indicate that
cohesive failure happens at every single contact, since other pa-
rameters such as roughness of sand particles, the presence of
impurity, and congestion of bacteria on sand particles may affect
the mode of failure.
The UCS test was performed to assess the ratio between the
tensile strength and UCS for MICP-treated sands. The UCS values
were approximately 2.5, 3.0, and 2.6 MPa for Ottawa 20-30, Ottawa
50-70, and Nevada sands, respectively (Fig. 3). Similar UCS values
have been reported for MICP-treated sands with the similar ranges
of carbonate content (Gomez et al. 2017; Van Paassen et al. 2010;
1615
␥total (mJ/m2) WC (mJ/m2) WA (mJ/m2)
41.4 82.8 84.2
43.2 86.4 84.2
Fig. 4. Typical mode of failure under (a) compressive and (b) tensile
loading. [Colour online.]
Terzis and Laloui 2018). The failure strain for UCS tests were 0.21%,
0.36%, and 0.28% in Ottawa 20-30, Ottawa 50-70, and Nevada
sands, respectively. Comparing tensile and compressive behaviors
indicates that failure occurs in lower axial strains under tensile
loads compared with compressive loads (i.e., about an order of
magnitude lower). To assess the magnitude of the ratio of tensile
strength to UCS, tests with similar carbonate contents (Nos. 1 and
10, Nos. 4 and 11, and Nos. 7 and 12) were considered. According to
the test results, this ratio was 0.25, 0.23, and 0.19 for Ottawa 20-30,
Ottawa 50-70, and Nevada sands, respectively. The ratio of the
tensile strength to UCS for Portland cemented sand varied be-
tween 0.1 and 0.3, depending on the cement content and the type
of tensile test (Das et al. 1995; Namikawa and Koseki 2007; Consoli
et al. 2010).
Figure 4 illustrates the typical failure mode of specimens under
compressive and tensile loads. The location of failure for each
specimen under tensile loading condition is presented in Table 3.
The failure surface was almost perpendicular to the loading direc-
tion in all tension tests (similar to Fig. 4b).
4. Conclusion
Direct tension and UCS tests were conducted on 12 specimens to
evaluate the tensile behavior of three types of sands (coarse, me-
dium, and fine sands) cemented through MICP. The results con-
firm that MICP is an appropriate technique in increasing the
tensile strength of sands. The fine sand (Nevada sand) required a
higher carbonate content than medium and coarse sands to reach
a similar range of tensile strength. The magnitude of the ratio
between tensile strength and UCS ranged from 0.19 to 0.25 de-
pending upon the particle size. The ratio of the tensile strain at
failure to that of UCS is ⬃0.1. Moreover, the specimens after ten-
sile failure showed that the failure surface is perpendicular to the
applied tensile load direction. Surface energy measurements were
performed on carbonate and silica sheets. Based on surface energy
measurements, cohesive failure within calcium carbonate bonds
is more likely to occur than adhesive failure at particle contacts
under tensile loads. This conclusion assumes that stresses at all
locations within a bond are equal.
Published by NRC Research Press
 1616
Acknowledgements
Funding from the National Science Foundation (CMMI Nos.
1537007 and 1554056) is appreciated. Any opinions, findings, and
conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the au-
thors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National
Science Foundation. This work was performed in part at the Ana-
lytical Instrumentation Facility (AIF) at North Carolina State Uni-
versity, which is supported by the State of North Carolina and the
National Science Foundation (ECCS No. 1542015). The AIF is a
member of the North Carolina Research Triangle Nanotechnology
Network (RTNN), a site in the National Nanotechnology Coordi-
nated Infrastructure (NNCI).
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