Coupling simulation of microbial growth and MICP phenomena based on reaction-diffusion system

Abstract

Microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) has been recognized as that microbial metabolism may induce a generation of calcium carbonates in the pores and/or on the surface of sand particles. However, only actual observations approach of inner structures by microscopes are difficult to understand the MICP process. In the current work, we propose a mathematical and numerical simulation model based on the reaction-diffusion system and finite difference method, respectively in order to understand dynamically calcium carbonate precipitation process and relationship between bacterial growth and precipitation. As a result, some temporal and spatial precipitation structures of calcium carbonate such as active and inactive bonds structures were obtained through some numerical examples, which are in good agreement with the existing experimental results.