• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.173-185
• /
• 2020

Calcareous soil is originated from marine biogenic sediments and weathering of carbonate rocks. The formation history for calcareous sediment includes complex physical, biological and chemical processes. It is preferably selected as the major fill materials for hydraulic reclamation and artificial island construction. Calcareous sands possess inter pores and complex shape are liable to be damaged at normal working stress level due to its fragile nature. Thus, the engineering properties of calcareous soil are greatly affected by its high compressibility and crushability. A series of triaxial shear tests were performed on calcareous sands derived from South China Sea under different test conditions. The effects of confining pressure, particle size, grading, compactness, drainage condition, and water content on the total amount of particle breakage for calcareous soil were symmetrically investigated. The test results showed that the crushing extent of calcareous sand with full gradation was smaller than that a single particle group under the same test condition. Large grains are cushioned by surrounding small particles and such micro-structure reduces the probability of breakage for well-graded sands. The increasing tendency of particle crushing for calcareous sand with a rise in confining pressure and compactness is confirmed. It is also evident that a rise in water content enhances the amount of particle breakage for calcareous sand. However, varying tendency of particle breakage with grain size is still controversial and requires further examination.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.13-21
• /
• 2023

Mean sea level has recently been rising due to global warming causing coastal erosion. As Korea is peninsula, the land loss due to coastal erosion is critical. An approach in this study is cementing the coastal area using bacteria, which is called microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP). This study tried to see how fresh water and sea water work with MICP as a solvent. Ureolytic activity during the MICP reaction was measured with deionized and sea water. A soil column was prepared to evaluate the strength of MICP-treated sand. Sands were treated by MICP with surface percolation method. As the treatmen t style was different with other conventional methods, several methods were proposed to properly evaluate the MICP-treated sand surface. A micro-scale evaluation was performed to assess the mineral structure treated by different solvents. As results, sea water rendered the ureolytic reaction slower. A needle penetrometer worked well to evaluate the MICP-treated sand surface. This study confirmed the utilization of sea water is feasible as the solvent of MICP.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.677-684
• /
• 1999

To investigate size distribution and metallic elements of surface sediments in Hampyong Bay, the southwestern coast of Korea, sedimentological and geochemical studies on surface sediments are carried out. The surface sediments of Hampyong Bay are classified into gravel, muddy sandy gravel, gravelly muddy sand, gravelly sandy mud, mud facies in accordance with areal characteristics. The coarse sediments are distributed on the subtidal zone along the main tidal channel and southeast intertidal flat of Hampyong Bay. On the other hand, the fine sediments are dominated in northeast and west intertidal flat of Hampyong Bay. Most metallic elements except for Ba in the sediments are closely interrelated with fine sediments and mutually with each element. Ba is maybe related with sandy sediments and inversely related with carbonate contents. Normalized by Al content, the sediment do not show any remarkable metal enrichments influenced by resonable artificial or environmental factors.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.29 no.11
• /
• pp.61-72
• /
• 2013

The consolidation tests are conducted to investigate the soil particle crushing stress for understanding the secondary compression characteristics of carbonate sandy sabkha soil caused by particle crushing under a high confining stress. The rate of secondary crushing compression ($C_{{\alpha}{\epsilon}}{^*}$) is introduced instead of the rate of secondary compression to define the characteristic of the particle crushing compression settlement ($S_s{^*}$). Void ratio ($e_p{^*}$) and settlement ($H_p{^*}$) in particle crushing are used as a reference point of secondary behavior, and the ratio of primary compression index ($C_c$) to secondary crushing compression ($C_{{\alpha}{\epsilon}}{^*}$), $C_{{\alpha}{\epsilon}}{^*}/C_c$ value was changed from 0.0105 to 0.0187. When comparing with quartz sands, secondary compression settlement of sabkha is very large due to particle crushing which is not usually observed in quartz sand. It is observed that as the depth of sabkha layer becomes deep, the $S_s{^*}$ and $C_{{\alpha}{\epsilon}}{^*}$ increase under the same stress level.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.193-204
• /
• 1999

Particle crushing is an important and essential factor in interpreting the strength and deformation properties of granular materials in the case of geotechnical problems related to soil crushability. As a recent field problem, the exploitation of offshore oil reserves in tropical and sub-tropical coastal shelf areas has shown that the behaviour of soils containing carbonates is markedly different from predominantly silica sands. In this study, as a first step in making a mechanical framework of granular materials incorporating the soil crushability, single particle fragmentation tests were carried out on four different types of sands in order to clarify the characteristics of the single particle fragmentation strength as related to soil crushability. The single particle strength was considered with the influence of the particle shapes, the amount of mineral components and the particle sizes. The soil particle strength corresponding $D_{50}$ of soil distribution curve has shown the lower value, the more the carbonate component and the more angular the particle shape.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.45-56
• /
• 2013

In this study, a blast furnace slag with latent hydraulic property is used to cement granular soils without using Portland cement. When the blast furnace slag reacts with an alkaline activator, it can cement soils. The effect of amounts of blast furnace slag and types of alkaline activator on soil strength was investigated for resource recycling. Four different amounts of slag and six different activators (two naturals and four chemicals) were used for preparing specimens. The specimens were air-cured for 3 or 7 days and then tested for unconfined compressive strength (UCS). The UCS of cemented sand with slag increased, in the order of specimens mixed with potassium carbonate, calcium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide. Chemical alkaline activator was better than natural alkaline activator. The maximum UCS of 3-days cured specimens was 3 MPa for 16% of slag with potassium hydroxide, which corresponded to 37% of one with 16% of high-early strength portland cement. As the amount of slag increased, the UCS and dry density of a specimen increased for all alkaline activator cases. As the curing time increased from 3 days to 7 days, the UCS increased up to 97%. C-S-H hydrates were found in the cemented specimens from XRD analyses. Cement hydrates were more generated with increasing amount of slag and they surrounded sand particles, which resulted in higher density.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.782-788
• /
• 2010

Microbiological calcium carbonate precipitation (MCP) has been investigated for its ability to improve the compressive strength of mortar. However, very few studies have been conducted on the use of calcite-forming bacteria (CFB) to improve compressive strength. In this study, we discovered new bacterial genera that are capable of improving the compressive strength of mortar. We isolated 4 CFB from 7 environmental concrete structures. Using sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA genes, the CFB could be partially identified as Sporosarcina soli KNUC401, Bacillus massiliensis KNUC402, Arthrobacter crystallopoietes KNUC403, and Lysinibacillus fusiformis KNUC404. Crystal aggregates were apparent in the bacterial colonies grown on an agar medium. Stereomicroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction analyses illustrated both the crystal growth and the crystalline structure of the $CaCO_3$ crystals. We used the isolates to improve the compressive strength of cement-sand mortar cubes and found that KNUC403 offered the best improvement in compressive strength.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2009.03a
• /
• pp.993-998
• /
• 2009

This study was conducted to propose the model that is able to predict long-term settlement of sands containing carbonates. We can observe that in addition to the initial elastic compression, a considerable additional compression occurs with long-term period in some sands. The compressibility of sands is significantly dependent on particle characteristics. Some sands have many pores and particularly has an angular shape. To predict of long-term settlement of these sands which contain carbonates, first of all a variety of tests which are to assess chemical, physical and compression characteristics of these sands were conducted. Second, in order to know settlement with time, the time parameter was determined by analyzing the measured data obtained from $\bigcirc\bigcirc$ area. The measured settlement of this area shows that in addition to the initial elastic compression, a considerable additional compression occurring with time. It was caused by the crushing, shattering, and rearrangement of particles, which were real phenomena in sandy soils under loading condition. Based on this case study, we proposed that a simple method is able to predict settlement with time of sandy soil containing carbonates.

• Geotechnical Engineering
• /
• v.2 no.3
• /
• pp.5-14
• /
• 1986

The results of stabilization process in silty.clays and sand-silts, which were, respectively, treated with Calcium hydroxide of the Calcium series and Aluminium Sulphate of the Aluminium series are follows. 1) In the former case used calcium hydrate and calcium cabonate for silty-clays, calcium aluminnium cabonate oxide hydrate and calcium carbonate for sandy-silts were produced 2) In the latter case used Aluminium Sulphate, by X-ray diffraction test, it was found that Aluminium Oxide was produced both in silty-clays and sandy-silts 3) As the results of stabilization process, in the former case, unconfined compression strength was increased greatly but in the latter case it was little increased.

• 한국해양학회지
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.130-142
• /
• 1987

Sedimentological characteristics of the surface sediments in the southern sea off Cheju Island are described from analyses of bottom sediments. The sediments are subdivided into seven textural classes, muddy sand, slightly gravelly muddy sand, sand, clayey sand, sandy clay, sandymud, silty sand. Sand-size sediments are distributed in the southeastern part and/or around the Island, whereas sandy and muddy sediments are mainly distributed in the central and southern parts of the study area. A small portion of mud patch is located in the southwestern part of the area. According to the textural parameters analysis, sediments in the study area are poorly sorted(av.2.52 ), positive skewed(av.1.61 ), leptokurtic(av.1.74 ), transported by saltation and/or suspension, and roundness of quartz is varied from angular to surrounded, which suggesting that the depositional environment is not simple. The calcium carbonate content is on the average 26.99%, and commonly abundant in sand-size sediments, whereas organic matter content in the bulk sediment is on the average 6.70% and usually dominant in fine-grained sediments.Light minerals consist of quartz(av56.01%),Na-Ca feldspar(av.6.15%),K-feldspar(av.9.22%) and rock fragments(av28.11%).The contect onquartz and K-feldspar increases continuously away from the Cheju Island. As a result of geochemical analysis,concentrations of the elements are as follow:Zn:19.42-43.52 ppm (av.30.67ppm),Mn:50-304 ppm(av139.39ppm),Cr:3.54-10.68ppm(av6.50ppm),Pb:5.52-41.68ppm(av.15.60ppm), Co:7.08-14.68ppm (av.10.78ppm),Ni:19.70-42.42ppm(av.29.57ppm),Cu:3.14-9.12ppm(av.5.14ppm),Fe:0.48-2.08% (av1.22%),Ca:0.32-13.16%(av6.60%),Al:0.06-0.08%(av.0.27%),Mg:0.12-0.76%(av.0.53%)na:0.11-0.51%(av.0.36%) Ag:0.48-4.08ppm(av.1.22ppm).Among these elements,the content of Zn,Cu,Cr,Mn,Fe,Al,Mg,Pb and Na increase toward the southwestern area,while the content of Ca and Ag SHOWS the reversed distribution trend.Such a distribution pattern seems to imply that spatial distrivution of heavy metals is closely related to the variation in grain size. X-ray diffractogram show that the minerals in clay from the southwestern mud patch are illite ,chlorite, kaolinte,feldspar and calcite.The bulk of illite in th mud zone is believed to be originated from Huanghe and Yangytze River.The mud patch in this region contains the diagnostic calcite peak,and the concentration of Ca,ni,Pb,Ag are similar to Huanghe type,which indicates that the greater part of these clay fractions may have been derived from the Huanghe River.