Investigation of Nonwoven Geotextiles for Full Contact Flexible Mould Used in Preparation of MICP-treated Geomaterial

Abstract

This study is concerned with needle-punched, nonwoven geotextile materials that have been used to develop full contact flexible moulds (FCFM) to treat soil specimens through microbial calcite precipitation (MICP) process by immersing method. MICP was induced through bacteria-urea reactions. The objective of this study was to figure out how different geotextiles influence the preparation of MICP-treated specimens. Five types of geotextiles were selected to prepare FCFM used for MICP treatment in this study. There is one singeing geotextile with the sintered side during these five geotextiles. Unconfined compression tests, four-point bending tests, and direct shear tests were conducted on MICP-treated specimens prepared by different geotextiles. The experimental results indicated that the mechanical properties of MICP-treated soil specimen prepared in FCFM made by G2 geotextile and G3 geotextile were similar. The unconfined compressive strength of the MICP-treated specimen reached 1.12 MPa (G2) and 0.90 MPa (G3), and MICP-treated specimens prepared by singeing geotextile had better performance than original geotextiles.