Jet grouting is a method for improving of soil properties and its physical characteristics. However, in this method due to high pressure and velocity of cement slurry the soil structure has been damaged as some parts are moved from the borehole replacing with cement slurry. The grains, which are remained in the borehole, mixed with slurry (cement) and create an improved mass of soil. This mass is named “Soilcrete”. Soilcrete mass has special characteristics such as high strength, low deformability and very low permeability. In this paper, principles governing to jet grouting and effective parameters have been explained. Then the test results obtained from Soilcrete column have been analyzed and discussed. Based on the results, jet grouting has led to increase and improvement of physical and mechanical characteristics of soils, i.e. uniaxial compressive strength, cohesion and internal friction angle. Finally the values of jet grouting parameters are recommended in order to achieve larger diameters in the mentioned site based on trial grouting results .

In this study, a non-plastic silt is grouted by sodium silicate in an electrokinetic cell. The silicate solutions are injected through the reservoir next to the anode electrode. The injection of Na- silicate solution increases the strength adjacent to the anode electrode between 5 to 8 times compared with the base soil. Increasing silicate concentration generates lower increase in strength across the specimen. This means that decreasing the silicate concentration increases the penetration length of the grout. Neglecting the results for anode side of the specimens, the maximum increase in strength has been observed for injection of 5% silicate solution through the anode with acid in the cathode chamber. The obtained strength is 3.3 to 4.0 times greater than the strength of the base soil with the highest penetration length.The application of this technology for increasing the strength of the soil underneath an existing foundation or generation of pile through the soil is proven.

Collapsible soils are among the problematic soils in nature that due to wetting, make many settlements so that according to research, the amount of settling can reach 1 to 2% of the thickness of the soil layer.If this type of soil is not identified, if structures are built on them, the constructed structure will be damaged if the soil saturates and changes in soil moisture. The existence of such soils in many parts of the world including Kerman province of Iran, necessitates the attention to study the behavior and characteristics of the collapsible soils. The aim of this contribution is to investigate the effect of butadiene rubber on the stabilization of collapsible soils. The tested fine-grained soils that have been sampled from two different sites were stabilized through injecting different percentages of butadiene (the number of experiments was 84). The ASTM D5333 Double-Consolidation Method, was applied in order to examine the stabilized soils on intact soil samples. The results show that the penetrations of butadiene rubber as well as the formation of butadiene rubber columns have led to reduction in soil collapse. Considering development of intelligent systems using prediction behavior of stabilized collapsible soils, the ANFIS model was used to predict degree of collapsibility of soil samples stabilized by injection Styrene Butadiene Rubber.

One of the most common methods of soil improvement is to use additives in order to improve strength properties and permeability of the soil. Cements or chemicals are usually used as binders for soil particles, which lead to increase the soil shear strength and reduce its hydraulic conductivity (i. e. permeability). Nevertheless, these materials are not suitable for soil improvement in the long term because they require significant natural resources. The use of cement and chemicals for soil improvement is expensive and time-consuming. Management of renewable natural resources (microorganisms and their products) could lead to solve geotechnical and environmental problems and achieve great economic benefits in the building industry. In addition, the application of microbial biotechnology in the building industry make easier some of the existing methods of construction. Using the latest microbial biotechnology, a new type of building materials, namely biocement, has been produced as an alternative to cement or chemicals. Biocementation is the improvement of strength and stiffness of rock and soil by using microbial activity and their products. The process of the formation of precipitates or biocement in the presence of microorganisms is called microbialy induced calcium precipitation (MICP). Biocement can be used in solid and liquid states. In the liquid state, biogrout can flow like water with very low viscosity. Therefore, compared to cement and chemicals, it will be transmitted into the soil, more easily. Naturally, biocement is formed in the presence of microorganisms in ambient temperature and thus, it requires less energy. Because of the abundance of microorganisms in the nature and easy to reproduce with low cost, this type of cement is sustainable. The Microorganisms that are suitable for the production of biocement are usually non-pathogenic and environment friendly. In addition, unlike cement, soil can be improved without disturbance of ground and the environment; since microorganisms can penetrate into the soil and grow in it. This dissertation aims to realize the effect of ground condition on the MICP process in non-cohesive soils. Since this method is still in the laboratory stage, for being used in practical projects, it is required to carry out laboratory experiments, including relative density and particle size distribution, to evaluate the performance of this method in different ground conditions. For this purpose, it was used from Sandy soil with different silt contents of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% in two states of Loose (Dr = 40%) and dense (Dr = 100%) conditions in this research. The high urease activity and non-pathogenic bacteria S. Pasteurii was also used in the MICP process. In order to consider the soil conditions on the efficiency of this type of improvement method, uniaxial compressive test parameters and precipitated calcium carbonate content were investigated. According to the results, increasing of silt content from 0% to 20%, leads to reductions of 40% and 46% in precipitated calcium carbonate content, increases of 57% and 41% in the uniaxial strength and increases of 79% and 71% in the elasticity modulus of the samples in two loose and dense conditions, respectively. It seems that these changes were resulted from shrinking of the empty space and increasing of the contact area between the soil particles.

Introduction: In many areas of the world, the mechanical properties of soils for utilization of land are not sufficient. For improvement of these lands, soil stabilization such as compacting, installation of nails, elders of piles, mixing soil with lime or cement before or during constructions on the surface or inside of the ground can be useful. Microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), due to its versatility and stable performance, has been recently attracted the attention of many researchers in the field of the geotechnical engineering around the world. MICP is a biological technique that is naturally caused to create a cementation agent, which is known as calcium carbonate or calcite by controlling the metabolism of bacteria. Although there are many biological processes that can be lead to MICP, but the using of urea hydrolysis by bacteria is commonly used more. In this method, aerobic bacteria with the enriched urease enzymes inject into the soil. Hydrolysis of urea occurs when the bacteria speeds up the hydrolysis reaction to produce ammonium and carbonate ions. In the presence of soluble calcium ions, carbonate ions are precipitated and formed the calcium carbonate crystals. When these crystals are formed on a grain of soil or like a bridge between them, they prevent the movement of grains and thus improve the mechanical and geotechnical properties of the soil. Material and methods: In the present study, the effect of increasing fines on the improvement of Anzali sandy soil, and soil resistance parameters for improving the clean sand and its mixtures with a fine grained cohesive soil and a fine grained cohesionless soil separately in a percentage weight of 30 by MICP and using a small scale of direct shear test (6×6) have been investigated. In the present study the sandy soil was collected from the coast of Bandar Anzali Free Zone and for the preparation of samples of clayey sand and silty sand, Kaolinite clay soils and Firouzkooh broken silt were used, respectively. Anzali sand is poorly graded and had a rounded corner with an average particle size of 0. 2 mm, somewhat, sharpening cores are also found in its granulation. In addition, its fine grained content is very small (less than 1%). The Kaolinite clay is also labeled with a liquid limit of 40, a plastic limit of 25, and a plasticity index of 15 as an inorganic clay (CL). The used microorganism in this study is urease positive Sporosarcina pasteurii, which is maintained with the number of PTCC1645 at the Center Collective of Industrial Microorganisms of Iran Scientific and Research Organization. The bacterium was cultured in a culture medium containing 20 g/l yeast extract and 10 g/l ammonium chloride at pH 9 under aerobic conditions in incubator shaker machine at 150 rpm and temperature of 30 ° C. The organism was grown to late exponential/early stationary phase and stored at 4 ° C before injection in samples. A solution of calcium chloride and urea with a molar ratio of one is also used as a cementation solution. With the direct shear test (6cm×6cm) as a benchmarking of the shear strength in the before and after improvement steps, molds fitted with a shear box made of the galvanized sheet with a thickness of 0. 6 mm and it consists of two main parts, the body, in the middle of which an exhaust pipe was embedded in the injector waste fluid. At the bottom of the samples, a layer of filter paper was placed in order to prevent soil washes, and then all samples with a thickness of 2 cm, with a relative density of 30% at the same weight and height were pressed. In the upper part of the samples, a layer of filter paper is similarly used to prevent the discontinuity of soil particles when injected biological materials are used. Biological solutions are injected from the top to the specimens and allowed to penetrate under the influence of gravitational and capillary forces in the sample and discharge the inhaled fluid from the exhaust pipe. The criterion for determining the volume of the solution to inject into each sample is the pure volume (PV) of soil. The preparation process of the samples was initiated by injection of a PV water unit, followed by a two-layer mixture of bacterial suspensions and cementation solutions, each with a volume of one PV, and then for biological reactions, 24 hours to the sample at laboratory temperature (25 ± 2) is given. After the time of incubation, the solution of cementation is injected into the sample for a period of three days and every 24 hours. The processing time of samples is also considered 28 days. In this study, optical density (OD) was selected as a benchmark for estimating the concentration of bacterial cells in the culture medium, and in all stages of development, and precisely before injection of bacteria suspension into soil samples, it was measured by a spectrophotometer device at 600 nm (OD600) wavelength, which was obtained for all bacterial suspensions in the range of 1. 7 to 2 before the injection. To determine the activity of urea bacteria, 1 ml of bacterial suspension was added to nine milliliters of 1. 11 molar urea solution, and by immersing the electrode of the electrical conductivity in the solution, its conductivity was recorded for 5 minutes at 20 ± 2 ° C. The rate of urea activity in the pre-treatment stage for all specimens was in the range of 0. 8 to 1. 23 mS min-1. In order to evaluate the shear strength parameters of soil samples, before and after the improvement operations, a direct shear test was used based on the ASTM D3080 standard. This test was performed for all samples under stresses of 50, 100 and 150 kPa in undrained conditions at a loading speed of 1 mm/min up to a strain of 15%. Also, samples of soil with a moisture content of 7% and a relative density of 30% (as already mentioned) have been restored. SEM analysis was carried out to determine the distribution of sediment between soil particles and EDX analysis in order to identify carbonate calcium sediment formation elements in improved soil samples, by scanning electron microscopy on Anzali sandy soil samples in before and after improvement conditions. Conclusions: The effect of the increasing cohesive and cohesionless fines on the bio-treated process of sandy soil is the main subject of this research. For this purpose, three samples of clean sand, sand containing 30% clay and sand mixture with 30% silt in a relative density of 30% were treated with MICP method and their shear strength parameters were evaluated by direct shear test after 28 days of processing. Using the direct shear test and analyses of SEM and EDX data, the results are represented as below: 1. The microbial sediment of carbonate calcium has greatly improved the resistance properties of all three soil samples. 2. A sample of clayey sand, in spite of a higher improvement compared to the other samples with an average shear strength of 113. 7% in comparison to to its untreated state, it has the lowest shear strength among the three improved samples. 3. Increasing the clay content of 30% increases the soil voids. On the other hand, it reduces the friction angle and shear strength of the soil in the pre-treated state and also facilitates easier movement of the bacteria between the pores in the soil. More favorable distribution of sediment calcium carbonate was occurred and, as a result, increased adhesion between soil particles. 4. The increase of cohesionless fine particles creates more bonding points between sand particles and, therefore, calcium carbonate crystals form shorter distances between the soil bridges. As a result, with the end of the improvement process, the shear strength parameters of the sandy soil containing 30% of the silt compared to the clean sand have a higher value. 5. SEM images of the clean sand in both before and after improvement show that the calcium carbonate precipitation occurred with a uniform and thin layer that surrounds sand grains and another part of the sediments formed in the joint of grains. 6. Cube-shaped crystalline sediments confirm that the sediment formed in the soil is a stable type of calcite and that the relative increase in the friction angle of the improvement samples can be attributed to solid particles and multifaceted sediments. Also, the elements of carbon, oxygen, and calcium, which are the main components for the formation of calcium carbonate deposits, have been found in the EDX analysis of improvement sand samples.

In this study, the effect of nanokaolinite particles on geotechnical properties of clayey soils is investigated. The mechanical method of Planetary Ball Mill was used for production of nanoparticles. For this, initial kaolinite powders was milled in Planetary Ball Mill for 10 hours with speed of 500 Rpm of machine. Output powder was in nanometer scale that images produced from FESEM verified this. Then, nanoparticles were mixed with clayey soil (CL) in different weight ratio of dry soil and change percentage of geotechnical properties of treated soils was investigated by compaction, direct shear and cassagrande tests and optimum percentage of added nanokaolinite was determined. Results showed that LL and PL of soil increased while percentage of added nanoparticles increased but since increasing of PL is larger than LL, thus PI is decreased that it is favour for geotechnical engineering for construction. Also with attention to results of compaction tests, density of clayey soil was increased with adding of nanoparticles to an optimum quantity and after it decreased. It is determined from direct shear tests that cohesion of clayey soils increased with adding of nanoparticles to optimum quantity and after it is changeless approximately. Results of XRD and XRF tests showed that chemical integition of nanoparticles produced from planetary ball mill is similar to initial powder and not change.

In this study, the feasibility of using magnetic technology to reduce the dispersion of soil has been investigated. The reference treatment was potable water and 3 magnetic water devices (with different magnetic intensities) were used for magnetizing the potable water. The results showed that the magnetic field has a significant effect in order of 5 percent on increasing of magnesium concentration in soil columns and the calcium concentration in magnetic treatment was more than the reference treatment. It seemed that improving in hydrogen bonding between water molecules and clay particles and water trapping in soil caused reduction of salt in the soil. According to the increase of calcium and magnesium bivalent Cations in the soil, it is suggested that the use of magnetic field could improve soil’s dispersion and decrease the degree of soil’s dispersion.