Overview
The field of biogeotechnics is an exciting, new sub-field in geotechnical engineering that has developed rapidly over the past 15 years. Overall, the field seeks to develop bio-mediated and bio-inspired geotechnical solutions to society’s challenges including hazard mitigation, civil infrastructure, environmental restoration, and resource recovery.
Since the beginning, the UCD SIL group have been active and served a leading role. Beginning in 2002 Prof. DeJong and his students have been advancing the bio-mediated process which transforms loose sand into sandstone through the process of microbially induced calcite precipitation, or MICP. Laboratory testing, modeling modeling, centrifuge testing, and field deployment by the SIL group and several others have advanced MICP to bring it close to industry adoption. More recently, the SIL group has also explored the use of bio-films for permeability reduction and showed that a reduction of up to 500x is feasible. The group has recently expanded into bio-inspired technologies as well, where the forms, behaviors, and principles of natural tree root systems are being studied to identify approaches for improving the performance and efficiency of deep foundation systems.
The biogeotechnics research community has continued to expand rapidly in the US and worldwide. There have been several international workshops, conferences, and conference sessions on the topic. The SIL group has been funded by NSF, Geosyntec, University of California, Cameco Corporation, and others.
NSF Engineering Research Center for Bio-Mediated and Bio-Inspired Geotechnics
In 2015 the UCD SIL team and collaborators, with teams at Arizona State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and New Mexico State University were awarded an NSF Engineering Research Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics.
More information regarding the UCD ERC team can be found here.
The main website for the ERC, which is led by ASU, is here.
Further Reading
DeJong, J.T. “Sustainable Biogeotechnics”, ASCE Geo-Institute Geo-strata, October 2015, pp. 24- 32.
DeJong, J.T., Soga, K.S., Kavazanjian, E., Burns, S., van Paassen, L., Al Qabany, A., Aydilek, A., Bang, S.S., Burbank, M., Caslake, L., Chen, C.Y., Cheng, X., Chu, J., Ciurli, S., Fauriel, S., Filet, A.E., Hamdan, N., Hata, T., Inagaki, Y., Jefferis, S., Kuo, M., Laloui, L., Larrahondo, J., Manning, D.A.C., Martinez, B., Montoya, B.M., Nelson, D.C., Palomino, A., Renforth, P., Santamarina, J.C., Seagren, E.A., Tanyu, B., Tsesarsky, M., Weaver, T. “Biogeochemical Processes and Geotechnical Applications: Progress, Opportunities, and Challenges” Geotechnique, 2013, Vol. 63, No. 4, pp. 287-301.
DeJong, J.T., Mortensen, B.M., Martinez, B.C., and Nelson, D.C. “Bio-Mediated Soil Improvement” Ecological Engineering, 2010, Vol. 36, pp. 197-210.
DeJong, J., Mortensen, B., and Martinez, B. Bio-Soils Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Initiative, NSF Final Report for Grant #CMS-0628782, 2008, 85 pgs.
Note: additional references are available here.
Questions?
If you have additional questions about biogeotechnics or the CBBG please contact Jason DeJong.