Unconfined compressive strength of microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) treated soils

Microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is an enhanced and accelerated natural process where bacteria precipitate calcite and bind soil particles together and therefore increase its strength. Since 2005, there have been significant number of journal articles published on MICP in the field of engineering geology and civil engineering. A critical scrutiny revealed that only part of these articles put effort in correlating engineering property of soil e.g. unconfined compressive strength, UCS with total calcite precipitation in a MICP treated soil. This article compiled UCS data with the total amount of calcite precipitation. It is hypothesised that soil grading significantly affects the throat-size of soil particle which influences the bonding created by calcite precipitation.Therefore, soil-grading properties such as D10 and Cc were considered with calcite to find foreseeable relation for UCS. A regression model can be developed for UCS with total calcite precipitation and D10. This is preliminary study which shows a pathway of such modelling approach.