An experimental investigation of wind erosion resistance of desert sand cemented by soybean-urease induced carbonate precipitation

This study experimentally investigated the efficiency of soybean urease-induced carbonate precipitation (SICP) cemented desert sand in resisting wind-blown sand erosion. A suite of wind-blown sand tests was conducted on desert sand at various controlling factors, including the soybean-urease solution (SUS) concentration, cemen-tation solution (CS) concentration, the volume of SICP solution, and the treatment cycles. The wind-blown sand was simulated by introducing a certain amount of impacting particles to the wind flow at a velocity varying from 5 m/s to 15 m/s. The erosion rate, along with penetration resistance and CaCO3 content, were evaluated and correlated with the threshold detachment velocity (TDV). Results indicated that the SICP treatment could effectively reduce the wind-induced erosion potential of desert sand, as the erosion rate of the SICP-treated soil was significantly decreased under the coupled effects of wind shear force and the impacting particles. An op-timum SICP recipe is obtained to treat the sand by spraying two cycles of SICP solution at 4 L/m2 containing 40 g/L soybean urease solution and 1 mol/L cementation solution (urea -calcium chloride).