Abstract A study was conducted to stabilize An Nafud desert sand against wind-induced erosion employing enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) assisted by a sodium alginate (SA) biopolymer. Biopolymers occur naturally in brown seaweed, are inexpensive, and are used extensively in the food, textile, and paper industries as thickeners and emulsifiers. A wind tunnel experiment was conducted to evaluate the wind erosion rate of samples treated surficially by spraying various concentrations of mixes using EICP and SA solutions. The unconfined strength of the resulting crust that formed was measured with a hand penetrometer. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) were conducted to study the microstructure and to identify the presence of crystalline materials, respectively, in treated and untreated sand samples. The results indicate that combining EICP and SA led to a significant improvement in the erosion rate by 100% compared to the untreated samples, with effective results recorded at lower concentrations of SA. The improvement is mainly attributed to the inter-particle bonding effect of both the carbonate precipitant and the biopolymer. The unconfined strength of the crust that formed by means of the solution treatment increased with an increase in the concentration of the biopolymer. This increase is attributed to the lower viscosity of the biopolymer solution and the cross linking of the biopolymer due to the presence of divalent calcium ions. The soil treated with EICP alone had the lowest strength, and increments in the molar concentration of the calcium chloride had no effect on the surface strength.

中文翻译：

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使用生物聚合物辅助 EICP 技术减轻沙子的风蚀

摘要 进行了一项研究，利用藻酸钠 (SA) 生物聚合物辅助的酶诱导碳酸盐沉淀 (EICP) 来稳定 An Nafud 沙漠沙子以防止风蚀。生物聚合物天然存在于棕色海藻中，价格低廉，在食品、纺织和造纸工业中广泛用作增稠剂和乳化剂。进行风洞实验以评估通过使用 EICP 和 SA 溶液喷洒各种浓度的混合物进行表面处理的样品的风蚀率。所形成的外壳的无侧限强度是用手动针入度计测量的。进行扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 成像和 X 射线衍射 (XRD) 以研究微观结构并分别鉴定处理和未处理砂样品中结晶材料的存在。结果表明，与未处理的样品相比，EICP 和 SA 的组合使侵蚀率显着提高了 100%，在较低的 SA 浓度下记录了有效结果。这种改进主要归因于碳酸盐沉淀剂和生物聚合物的颗粒间结合作用。通过固溶处理形成的地壳的无侧限强度随着生物聚合物浓度的增加而增加。这种增加归因于生物聚合物溶液的较低粘度和由于二价钙离子的存在而导致的生物聚合物的交联。单独用 EICP 处理的土壤强度最低，氯化钙摩尔浓度的增加对表面强度没有影响。