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Mitigating desiccation cracking and hydraulic degradation in silty clay via biomineralization-palm fiber synergy: a multiscale study
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DOI：10.1007/s11440-026-03203-2.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
Soil erosion and bank collapse in hydro-fluctuation belts are exacerbated by seasonal dry–wet (D-W) cycles, which induce severe desiccation cracking and hydraulic deterioration in silty clay. This study proposes a sustainable stabilization strategy coupling soybean urease induced carbonate precipitation (SICP) with palm fiber reinforcement to enhance the hydro-mechanical resilience of riparian soils. Through a series of macroscopic mechanical tests and multi-scale microscopic characterizations under 15 D-W cycles, the synergistic evolution of soil structure and strength was elucidated. Results indicate that the incorporation of 0.5 wt% palm fiber serves as a critical threshold for optimal reinforcement. The peak unconfined compressive strength of this composite material reached 400 kPa prior to D-W cycling, which is 2.89 times that of untreated soil. The cumulative strength decay rate was 30.5%, and the degree of decay was reduced by 58.67% compared to the control group. In static disintegration tests, the optimized ternary system maintained structural integrity with less than 8% mass loss, whereas untreated soil collapsed completely within 462 min. Mechanistically, palm fibers acted as preferential nucleation templates for biomineralization, inducing the formation of dense calcite mineral encasements that established a robust fiber-mineral-matrix ternary interlocking system. This microstructure not only transformed the failure mode from brittle fracture to ductile yielding via the bridging effect, but also altered the pore deterioration trajectory by suppressing the coalescence of micropores into macropores, effectively reducing the corresponding coalescence rate from 82.7% to 44.7%. The study confirms that this bio-physical synergy effectively shields chemical cementation from hydraulic leaching and inhibits desiccation crack propagation, providing a resilient solution for geo-ecological restoration in fluctuation zones.
Keywords:
Dry–wet cycles
Enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation
Microstructure
Soil stabilization
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