Experimental Investigation on Effects of Bacterial Concentration, Crack Inclination Angle, Crack Roughness, and Crack Opening on the Fracture Permeability Using Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation

Uncontrollable leakage has significant effects on the safety of fractured rock mass, and microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) is an effective way to control the seepage. In this study, four sets of seepage experiments are conducted on transparent rock-like specimens containing MICP filled single cracks to investigate the effects of bacterial concentration, crack inclination angle, crack roughness, and crack opening on fracture permeability. The experimental results show that calcium carbonate precipitation is produced when Sporosarcina pasteurii and cementing fluid are injected into the cracks, which can seal the cracks and reduce the permeability of the cracks. Moreover, the calcium carbonate produced by Sporosarcina pasteurii increases with increasing bacterial concentration. Furthermore, the fracture permeability of the MICP filled crack increases first and then decreases with increasing inclination, roughness, and opening of cracks. The experimental results provide a better understanding of the influence of different construction conditions on fracture permeability when the MICP technology is applied in rock engineering.

Crack shielding in non-planar and frictional discontinuities under mixed-mode loading

In this paper, a two-dimensional model to describe the non-planar features of crack morphologies is presented. The model accounts for frictional tractions along the crack surfaces by considering an elastic-plastic-like constitutive interface law. Dilatancy effect due to crack roughness is described by the model, leading to a Mode I/II coupling between displacements and tractions along the crack surfaces. The non-linear solution of the rough and frictional crack under general remote scenarios is obtained using the Distributed Dislocation Technique (DDT). By considering a linear piecewise periodic profile of the interface crack, the influence of roughness and friction of interface cracks is examined in relation to both the resulting near-tip stress field and the fracture resistance under monotonic mixed-mode loading. The present model is able to quantify the increase of the fracture resistance due to roughnessand friction-induced crack tip shielding and to correlate it with a dimensionless crack size parameter.