Experimental and numerical investigation on heap formation of granular soil sparsely cemented by bacterial calcification

Abstract

Bacterial cementation can be a pathway to sustainable cementation in soil mounds as it consumes miniscule amount of energy in comparison to engineered cement. Bacteria cement grains through progressive formation of inter-granular bridges. This study presents a numerical framework to model the sparsely cemented granular heaps. A rigorous experimental program has been presented to observe the relationship between the level of cementation and the shapes of heap. A discrete element model (DEM) for sparsely cemented grains has been developed. The extent of cementation is modelled through random clumping of grains. It is observed that DEM is capable to capture the effect of cementation through gra..