Peat is one of the most challenging and problematic soils in the fields of Geotechnical and Environmental engineering. The most critical problems related to peat soil are extremely low strength and high compressibility, resulting in poor inhabitancy and infrastructural developments in their vicinity. As yet, peat soils were stabilized using Portland cement; however, the production of Portland cement causes significant emission of greenhouse gases which is not environmentally desirable. MICP (microbial induced carbonate precipitation) is an innovative technique for improving the mechanical properties of soil through potentially environmentally friendly processes. This article presents the laboratory work carried out with the aim of investigating the viability and effect of scallop shell powder (SSP) on enhancing the mechanical properties of MICP treated amorphous peat. The hypothesis was that the distribution of SSP (as-derived calcite particles) would (i) provide more nucleation sites to the precipitates, (ii) increase the connectivity of MICP bridges to facilitate mineral skeleton to amorphous peat and accompanying by an increase in its compressive strength. Specimens were treated at varying combinations of SSP and MICP reagents, and the improvement was comprehensively assessed through series unconfined compression tests and supported by microscale and chemical analysis such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The outcomes showed that incorporating SSP in MICP treatment would be a promising approach to treat amorphous peat soils. The proposed approach could improve the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) by over 200% after 7 days curing period, while the conventional MICP could not exhibit any significant improvements.

中文翻译：

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添加扇贝粉对MICP处理无定形泥炭的影响

泥炭是岩土工程和环境工程领域最具挑战性和问题的土壤之一。与泥炭土相关的最关键问题是强度极低和可压缩性高，导致其附近的居住和基础设施发展不佳。到目前为止，泥炭土是用波特兰水泥稳定的。然而，波特兰水泥的生产会导致温室气体的大量排放，这在环境上是不可取的。MICP（微生物诱导碳酸盐沉淀）是一种通过潜在的环境友好过程改善土壤机械性能的创新技术。本文介绍了为研究扇贝壳粉 (SSP) 对增强 MICP 处理的无定形泥炭机械性能的可行性和影响而开展的实验室工作。假设是 SSP（衍生方解石颗粒）的分布将 (i) 为沉淀物提供更多的成核位点，(ii) 增加 MICP 桥的连接性，以促进矿物骨架与无定形泥炭的形成，并伴随着其增加抗压强度。样本在不同的 SSP 和 MICP 试剂组合下进行处理，并通过一系列无侧限压缩测试综合评估改善情况，并得到扫描电子显微镜 (SEM)、能量色散 X 射线 (EDX) 分析和化学分析等微观尺度和化学分析的支持。 X 射线衍射 (XRD) 分析。结果表明，在 MICP 处理中加入 SSP 将是处理无定形泥炭土的一种有前途的方法。所提出的方法可以在 7 天的养护期后将无侧限抗压强度 (UCS) 提高 200% 以上，而传统的 MICP 没有表现出任何显着的改进。