• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.205-215
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• 1999

Crushable sandy soil grounds are widely found along the coast throughout the world. The ground composed of lime sand, which is characterized by the material with high compressibility due to particle crushing contains carbonate calcium. In this study, in order to clarify the characteristics of the particle crushing as related to the strength and deformation properties of sands, isotropic compression test was carried out on three different types of carbonate sands and a silica sand. A crushability index, K, is proposed in connection with the yielding and particle crushing stress of sands at various relative densities under isotropic compression. It is concluded that the representative crushability index, K, associated with the soil particle strength, can be a key factor in preliminary parameters in evaluating soil crushability.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.216-221
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• 2010

This study shows an application of microbiologically induced carbonate precipitate for strength improvement and crack remediation of cement-sand mortar. Seven calcium carbonate-forming bacteria (CFB) were isolated from Dok-do and partially identified by DNA sequence analysis of the 16s rRNA gene. Crystal aggregates were apparent around the bacterial colonies grown on an agar medium. These strains showed strain specific $CaCO_3$ precipitation on urea-$CaCl_2$ medium. Among 7 isolates, Arthrobacter nicotinovorans KNUC601, Microbacterium resistens KNUC602, Agrobacterium tumefaciens KNUC603, Exiguobacterium acetylicum KNUC604, and Bacillus thuringiensis KNUC606 showed a repairing of artificial forced cracks in cement-sand mortar. Compressive strength of cement-sand mortar consolidated with Stenotrophomonas maltophilia KNUC605 was increased around 14.07% compared with that of negative control.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.19-32
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• 2014

Carbonate sand of Sabkha layer in the middle east was made of deposition of shell fragments and it consisted of porous particles containing inner void. Generally, at yield stress the soil structure begins to break down, so the porewater pressure and the settlement are increased rapidly. In carbonate sand, unlike quartz sand if particle crushing happens, the inner voids are exposed and porewater pressure can be decreased under yield stress. Porewater pressure can be determined as the sum of excess porewater pressure due to increase of relative density, inner void expose of particle under particle crushing stress and rearrangement of crushed particle fragments. The porewater pressure can be negative value in case of greater amount of inner void expose, so if particle crushing is bigger, the porewater pressure value is smaller. The negative value zone of porewater pressure from triaxial test result means particle crushing effect is bigger than outer void decrease effect and the particle crushing effect dominant zone size was 1.50∼3.46% from triaxial test result of Sabkha layer.

• Journal of the Speleological Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.35
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• pp.78-104
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• 1993

Analysis of one sinkhole, the Dodgeville sinkhole, developed in Ordovician dolostones in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin in the Upper Midwest'd Driftless Area reveals homogenous clayey sediment fills reflecting a range of dissolutional processes during the Quaternary or Pre-Quaternary. Granulometric analysis, graphical moments statistics, carbonate minerals, ana sand grain lithology were used to differentiate sinkhole sediment sources and modes of accumulation. Sediments in the dolostone sinkholes developed by dissolution. Sediments contain two major types of sediments : residual redish clay( autogenic sediments) and aeolian silt (allogenic sediments). The massive clay is generated from the weathered dolostone bedrocks as a in situ materials. The loessial silt is mostly derived from transportation of the surrounding surface materials, with some evidences of penetrated deposition. Unlike the collapsed sandstone sinkholes (Oh et al., 1993), dolostone sinkholes reveal homogenous, autogenic clay materials, and a geochemical composition indicative of in situ autogenic karstification. Dolostone sinkhole si1ts (26.9%) and sands (34.9%) are derived from weathered Plattevi1le-Galena dolostones, and contain high carbonate(37.5%), chert (57.2%) and lead ore (3%). Graphical moments statistics for sorting, skewness, and kurtosis indicate that sand grains from dolostones were derived entirely from local bedrock by in situ dissolution. Upper sinkhole sediments are pedagogically very young as carbonate is unleashed. Materials of the sinkhole sediment are definitely inherited from internal dolostones by dissolution and weathering, because not only a granulomatric comparison of dolostone and sandstone sediments demonstrates that they have heterogeneous paticle size distributions, but also 1ithologic analyses displays they differ completely.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.133-140
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• 2023

Soil erosion can cause scouring and failures of underwater structures, therefore, various soil improvement techniques are used to increase the soil erosion resistance. The microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) method is proposed to increase the erosion resistance, however, there are only limited experimental and numerical studies on the use of MICP treatment for improvement of surface erosion resistance. Therefore, this study investigates the improvement in surface erosion resistance of sands by MICP through laboratory experiments and numerical modeling. The surface erosion behaviors of coarse sands with various calcium carbonate contents were first investigated via the erosion function apparatus (EFA). The test results showed that MICP treatment increased the overall erosion resistance, and the contribution of the precipitated calcium carbonate to the erosion resistance and critical shear stress was quantified in relation to the calcium carbonate contents. Further, these surface erosion processes occurring in the EFA test were simulated through the coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) with the cohesion bonding model to reflect the mineral precipitation effect. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results, and the developed CFD-DEM model with the cohesion bonding model well predicted the critical shear stress of MICP-treated sand. This work demonstrates that the MICP treatment is effective in improving soil erosion resistance, and the coupled CFD-DEM with a bonding model is a useful and promising tool to analyze the soil erosion behavior for MICP-treated sand at a particle scale.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.57-71
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• 1985

The characteristics of compaction and unconfined compressive strength were investigated by mixing with lime to all soils adjusted by given percentages of two kinds of clays to sand to obtain the most effective distribution of grain size and the optimum lime content for soil stabilization. In addition, unconfined compressive strength and durability tested by adding of sodium metasilicate, sodium sulfate, sodium carbonate, sodium gydroxide and magnesium oxide to lime-soil mixture mixed with 8 percent lime to adjusted soil having the mixing percentage of 60 percent of cohesive black clay and 40 percent of sand by weight to get the effect and the optimum content of chemicals. The results obtained were as follows; 1.With the addition of more lime, the optimum moisture content was increased, and the maximum dry density was decreased, whereas the more the amount of clay and the less was the maximum drt density. 2. In the soil having more fine grain size the unconfined compressive strength was larger in the earlier stage of curing period, in accordance with the longer period, the mixing percentages of sand to clay showing the maximum unconfined compressive strength, on the basis of 28-day strength, were 60% : 40% (black clay) and 40% : 60% (brown clay) respectively. 3. The reason why the soil adjusted with black clay was remarkably bigger in the unconfined compressive strength than ones adjusted with brown clay for all specimen of lime-soil mixture was the difference in the kind of clay, the amount of chemical compositions the value of pH. Black clay was mainly composed of halloysite that reacted with lime satisfactorily, whereas the main composition of brown clay was kaolinite that was less effect in the enhance of unconfined compressive strength. Also the difference of unconfined compressive strength was because black clay was larger in the amount of composition of calcium oxide and magnesium oxide in the value of pH affecting directly on the unconfined compressive strength of lime-soil mixture than brown clay. 4. In the lime-soil mixture mixed with 8 percent of lime to soil that mixing percentage of sand to black clay was 60% : 40%, on the standard of 7-day strength, the effect of chemical was arranged in the order of magnesium oxide, sodium carbonate, sodium sulfate, sodium hydroxide and sodium metasilicate. 5. The optimum amount of chemical being applicable to the maximum unconfined compressive strength of lime-chemical-soil mixture was 1 percent by weight for air dry soil in the case of adding sodium carbonated and 0.75 percent on sodium hydroxide, the unconfined compressive strength was increased continuously with increase of the amount of chemical up to 2 percent of chemical content is the lime-chemical-soil mixture added sodium metasilicate, sodium sulfate and magnesium oxide. 6. It was considered that the chemical played and accelerant role of early revelation of strength because the rate of increase of unconfined compressive strength of all of lime-chemical-soil mixtures was largest on the 7-day cured specimen. 7. The effect of test on freezing and thawing after adding suitable amount of chemical on the lime-soil mixture mixed with 8 percent of lime to soil that mixing percentage of sand to black clay was 60% : 40% was arranged in the order of magnesium oxide, sodium carbonate, sodium sulfate, sodium metasilicate and sodium hydroxide.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.465-473
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• 2019

Biocementation due to the microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) process is a potential technique that can be used for soil improvement. However, the effect of biocementation may be affected by many factors, including nutrient concentration, bacterial strains, injection strategy, temperature, pH, and soil type. This study investigates mainly the effect of chemical concentration on the formation of calcium carbonate (e.g., quantity, size, and crystalline structure) and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) using different treatment time and chemical concentration in the biotreatment. Two chemical concentrations (0.5 and 1.0 M) and three different treatment times (2, 4, and 8 cycles) were studied. The effect of chemical concentrations on the treatment was also examined by making the total amount of chemicals injected to be the same, but using different times of treatment and chemical concentrations (8 cycles for 0.50 M and 4 cycles for 1.00 M). The UCS and CCC were measured and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was carried out. The SEM images revealed that the sizes of calcium carbonate crystals increased with an increase in chemical concentrations. The UCS values resulting from the treatments using low concentration were slightly greater than those from the treatments using high concentration, given the CCC to be more or less the same. This trend can be attributed to the size of the precipitated crystals, in which the cementation efficiency increases as the crystal size decreases, for a given CCC. Furthermore, in the high concentration treatment, two mineral types of calcium carbonate were precipitated, namely, calcite and amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC). As the crystal shape and morphology of ACC differ from those of calcite, the bonding provided by ACC can be weaker than that provided by calcite. As a result, the conditions of calcium carbonate were affected by test key factors and eventually, contributed to the UCS values.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.421-427
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• 2019

Coastal erosion is becoming a significant problem in Greece, Bangladesh, and globally. For the prevention and minimization of damage from coastal erosion, combinations of various structures have been used conventionally. However, most of these methods are expensive. Therefore, creating artificial beachrock using local ureolytic bacteria and the MICP (Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation) method can be an alternative for coastal erosion protection, as it is a sustainable and eco-friendly biological ground improvement technique. Most research on MICP has been confined to land ureolytic bacteria and limited attention has been paid to coastal ureolytic bacteria for the measurement of urease activity. Subsequently, their various environmental effects have not been investigated. Therefore, for the successful application of MICP to coastal erosion protection, the type of bacteria, bacterial cell concentration, reaction temperature, cell culture duration, carbonate precipitation trend, pH of the media that controls the activity of the urease enzyme, etc., are evaluated. In this study, the effects of temperature, pH, and culture duration, as well as the trend in carbonate precipitation of coastal ureolytic bacteria isolated from two coastal regions in Greece and Bangladesh, were evaluated. The results showed that urease activity of coastal ureolytic bacteria species relies on some environmental parameters that are very important for successful sand solidification. In future, we aim to apply these findings towards the creation of artificial beachrock in combination with a geotextile tube for coastal erosion protection in Mediterranean countries, Bangladesh, and globally, for bio-mediated soil improvement.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.53-61
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to understand the mechanism of cementation of soil induced by bacteria. In order to understand the mechanism of cementation of soft soils treated with bacteria, six types of specimens(Not treated, Normal concentration bacteria treatment, High concentration bacteria treatment, Supernatant high concentration bacteria treatment, Double high concentration bacteria treatment, and 25% Specimen high concentration bacteria treatment) were made. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), EDX and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses were performed on the soft silt and loose sand specimens. Compared with the normal bacteria concentration treated specimen, a clearer cementation between particles was observed in the 25% specimen high bacteria concentration treated specimen. On the basis of the preliminary results, it appears that microbial cementation can occur in the soft soil.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.90-94
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• 2013

Cement or lime is generally used to improve the strength of soil. However, bacteria were utilized to produce cementation of loose soils in this study. The microo rganism called Bacillus, and $CaCl_2$ was introduced into loose sand and soft silt and $CaCO_3$ in the voids of soil particles were produced, leading to cementation of soil particles. In this study, loose sand and soft silt typically encountered in Korea were bio-treated with 3 types of bacteria concentration. The cementation (or calcite precipitation) in the soil particles induced by the high concentration bacteria treatment was investigated at 7 days after curing. Based on the results of Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) tests and EDX analyses, high concentration bacteria treatment for loose sand was observed to produce noticeable amount of $CaCO_3$, implying a significant cementation of soil particles. It was observed that higher calcium carbonate depositions were observed in poorly graded distribution as compared to well graded distribution. In addition, effectiveness of biogrouting has also been found to be feasible by bio-treatment without any cementing agent.