Abstract
Marine clay soils are problematic soils in the construction industry when they are subjected to construction loads. When these soils are loaded, they lose their structure. This leads to the soil being unable to withstand loads of any magnitude without exhibiting significant, permanent deformations. In order to stabilize the marine soil, new methods for soil improvement were built upon biogrouting by incorporating physical, biological and chemical treatments into the soil. However, the biggest challenge of this method is the bacteria migration through the soil medium. To overcome this issue, the electrokinetic phenomenon can be utilized alongside biogrouting to prevent the bacteria migration. In this regard, the present study applied electrobiogrouting stabilization to investigate the improvement of acidic marine clay soil with a pH of 3.69. To accomplish this, two large-scale physical models with dimensions of 500 × 300 × 1200 mm were fabricated to examine the influence of two different treated distances between the inlet and outlet—450 mm (D45) and 600 mm (D60)—on the stability of the treated soil. It was observed that the shear strength of the treated soil improved significantly. The shear strength at the D45 treated distance increased from 3.65 kPa (untreated soil) to 28.14 kPa (treated soil). However, the strength increased by increasing the treated distance. In addition, compressibility and soil electrical conductivity were reduced significantly, and the Atterberg limits were significantly enhanced from OH to OL. The reasons for the enhancement of treated soil were the formation of CaCO3, which filled the soil voids, and that the water content was reduced. To address issues with marine clay soil, this study aims to minimize the high cost of a special foundation system and the use of non-environmentally friendly materials such as calcium-based binders, aside from the reduction of deformations caused by loading. The findings of this study can be used for acidic soils and the improvement of soil’s geotechnical behavior in general.
Highlights
Marine clay soil is a type of soil that results from the weathering and erosion of limestone or dolomite, which contains a high content of magnesium, calcium and iron
The present study aims to conduct electrokinetic (EK) stabilization of soft acidic soil using the Microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) phenomenon on a large-scale specimen to enhance the physical properties of marine clay soil
The results of the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed no changes for the soil specimen mineralogy after the treatment for D45 compared to natural soil (N), and both were majorly formed by quartz, kaolinite and illite
Summary
Marine clay soil is a type of soil that results from the weathering and erosion of limestone or dolomite, which contains a high content of magnesium, calcium and iron. This soil has high water content and soluble salt that makes it difficult for concrete to set and is porous. They regularly plunge to huge depths of more than 30 m, as shown in Figure 1 [1]. Due to its high-water content [2] and a high amount of organic materials that can exceed
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