Modelling Biogrout: A New Ground Improvement Method Based on Microbial-Induced Carbonate Precipitation

By W. V. Wijngaarden, F. Vermolen, G. V. Meurs, Cornelis Vuik. 2011

140 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Biogrout is a new soil reinforcement method based on microbial-induced carbonate precipitation. Bacteria are placed and reactants are flushed through the soil, resulting in calcium carbonate precipitation, causing an increase in strength and stiffness of the soil. Due to this precipitation, the porosity of the soil decreases. The decreasing porosity influences the permeability and therefore the flow. To analyse the Biogrout process, a model was created that describes the process. The model contains the concentrations of the dissolved species that are present in the biochemical reaction. These concentrations can be solved from a advection–dispersion–reaction equation with a variable porosity. Other model equations involve the bacteria, the solid calcium carbonate concentration, the (decreasing) porosity, the flow and the density of the fluid. The density of the fluid changes due to the biochemical reactions, which results in density driven flow. The partial differential equations are solved by the Standard Galerkin finite-element method. Simulations are done for some 1D and 2D configurations. A 1D configuration can be used to model a column experiment and a 2D configuration may correspond to a sheet or a cross section of a 3D configuration.

Subfields: Civil and Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9b85273fbea87afe7de7f83dee32539afa7a84b0

How researchers see this paper

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In Civil and Structural Engineering

1. J. C. Santamarina
2. Kenichi Soga
3. M. Tsesarsky
4. L. Laloui
5. N. Lu

In Environmental Engineering

1. J. C. Santamarina
2. A. Aydilek
3. E. Seagren
4. Kenichi Soga
5. L. Laloui

Citations in the corpus

• Biogeochemical processes and geotechnical applications: progress, opportunities and challenges (2013, background): “…on prediction of biogeochemical processes (Barkouki et al., 2011; Fauriel & Laloui, 2011b, 2012; Laloui & Fauriel, 2011; Martinez et al., 2011; Van Wijngaarden et al., 2011, 2012; Martinez, 2012) and calcite distribution, or on prediction of the mechanical behaviour of biocemented soils…”