Annotated Summary


Li, B. (2015). Geotechnical properties of biocement treated sand and clay. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10356/62560

Li Bing, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Nanyang Technological University is the author of this investigation on the potential uses of biocement on low permeable material.

This article focused on the application of biocement to improve the soil conditions for geotechnical engineering. In this research project, its aim is to use microbial technologies to study biocementation effects on low permeability materials such as clay. Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) is the most practiced biocementation method. The properties of MICP treated soil were tested with various tests. For instance, unconfined compression tests, triaxial tests and direct simple shear tests. The article also mainly uses three sets of bacteria for this experiment. They are Urease-Producing Bacteria (UPB), Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria(SRB) and Iron-Reducing Bacteria(IRB). Other difference analyses of urease in the MICP process are also mentioned.

This article also discusses about engineering properties and difficulties of soft clay deposits. Prof Li Bing used two types of sand in this study. They are mainly Ottawa sand from the U.S. and filtration sand imported from Australia. Both were poorly graded fine sand, white in colour. For clay, he mainly uses three types of clayey materials which are kaolin, marine clay and bentonite. Furthermore, it also mentions the possible application of MICP to fine grained soils, which are kaolin and marine clay. The test of UC strength was benchmark against the calcite content.

Lastly, optimization of biocementation in sand and usage of biocement to improve the properties of clay soil was studied in this research. He also uses small cylindrical samples and soil samples of one cubic meter in volume for the test. This article also mentions about different chemical compositions and types of bacteria that was tested on both sand and clay.

This annotated summary is able to help me research on the limitation on our group research project. I also able to link it to the lower strength of comparing biocement to traditional concrete.

Commented on
Cen Wei
Wai Yan
Justin

Comments

  1. ArdiniApril 1, 2020 at 3:02 PM

    Hi Derek,

    It is an interesting summary. Biocement is a famous researched topic among geotechnical engineers. I am looking forward to the implementation of biocement in large scale construction projects.

    However, the link between the article and your team's proposed solution was not included. Looking forward to how biocement used in your project!


    Regards,
    Ardini

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tan Wei ZhangApril 3, 2020 at 1:48 AM

    Hi Derek,

    Your annotated summary is well detailed on the effects and characteristics of biocement. It is important to understand this concept to be incorporated into soils but I feel some information can be replaced with the benefits on the soils to have a better understanding.

    Overall, you could link the content towards your group's research project.

    Regards,

    Tan Wei Zhang

    ReplyDelete
  3. JustinApril 3, 2020 at 7:12 AM

    hi derrick,

    This is a detailed summary of the article. it is well written and very informative. However you did not mention how this article helped in your research.

    Regards,
    Justin

    ReplyDelete
  4. JSApril 3, 2020 at 7:16 PM

    Dear Derrick

    Your idea that your article is propagating is certainly an interesting one. You have included some details on what the article has covered.

    In addition, you also included some pointers that the annotated summary should include, such as the reference/end of text citation of the article and the author's main point.

    However I would also like to bring to your attention on some details that can be improved on.

    1) The reference/end of text citation of the article is present, it is in the correct position, being written before the annotated summary. To fully comply with the APA format, you may wish to leave the title in a non-italicised font.

    2) While you have stated the main point of the article, the details in your annotated summary did not seem to support the main point of your article. The details in your annotated summary only describes the various experiment processes, but not its results which would have linked back to the main point of this article.

    3) The information provided in this annotated summary does not provide an insight into how it helps in your group research, which is a required component of our annotated summary.

    I see some effort in attempting to fulfill the 2 criterion of a annotated summary, which includes both the citation in APA format and the author's main point.

    There is much room for improvement in fulfilling other 2 criterion of the annotated summary, which is listing down the supporting details for how the author supports, defines, or illustrates the main idea

    AND

    how the information in the article connects to your research
    project topic.

    With our comments and Professor Brad's help, I am sure these skills would be useful to us in the years to come.

    All the best in your upcoming exams

    Best wishes
    Jiang Seng

    ReplyDelete

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