Microbial-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) technology mainly uses carbonates produced by the reaction of microbial activities to repair rocks and soils. Temperature influences microbial metabolism and the kinetics of chemical reactions. In this study, microbial repair experiments on fractured sandstone under different temperatures are carried out. The repair effects are tested with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), an X-ray automatic diffractometer (XRD), uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) test. The influence of the temperature on the restorative effects of MICP was discussed. The results show that the repair effect of the Sporosarcina pasteurii is significantly better as the temperature increases. When the temperature reaches 33 °C, the porosity and permeability of fractured sandstone can be reduced by 55.174% and 98.761%, respectively. The average uniaxial compressive strength can be restored to 6.24 MPa. The repair effect gradually weakens with the increase in temperature. However, the Sporosarcina pasteurii can still maintain relatively good biological activity at temperatures from 33 °C to 39 °C. The main form of CaCO3 produced in the process of MICP is calcite. It can fill in the rock pores, and result in reducing the size and number of large pores and improving the impermeability and strength of fractured yellow sandstone.
The repeated cyclic freeze-thaw effect in low-temperature environments causes irreversible damage and deterioration to the microscopic pore structure and macroscopic mechanical properties of a rock. To study the effects of the freeze-thaw cycle on the porosity and mechanical properties, the indoor freeze-thaw cycle test and mechanical tests of sandstone-like materials were conducted. Based on nuclear magnetic resonance, the influence of the freeze-thaw cycle on microscopic pores was analyzed, and the intrinsic relationship between porosity and mechanical strength was discussed. Meanwhile, the energy change in the uniaxial compression test was recorded using the discrete element software (PFC2D). The influence of freeze-thaw cycles on different types of energy was analyzed, and the internal relationship between different energies and freeze-thaw cycles was discussed. The results showed that the microscopic pore structure is dominated by micropores, followed by mesopores and the smallest macropores. With an increase in the freeze-thaw cycle, both micropores and mesopores showed an increasing trend. The porosity showed an exponentially increasing trend with the increase in freeze-thaw cycles. The peak strength and elastic modulus decreased exponentially with the increase in freeze-thaw times, while the peak strain showed an exponentially increasing trend. The strain energy and bond strain energy showed a trend of increasing and decreasing in the front and back stages of the peak strength, respectively. However, the frictional energy always showed an increasing trend. The total energy, strain energy, bond strain energy, and friction energy all showed exponential increases with the increase in the number of freeze-thaw cycles.
The response characteristics of the mesostructure and macro-characteristics of the soil–rock mixture under repeated freeze–thaw action have an important influence on the safety and stability of the dump slope in low-temperature environments. In order to further understand the multi-scale response behavior of a soil–rock mixture under freeze–thaw cycles, this paper carried out indoor freeze–thaw cycles, uniaxial compression, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests on a soil–rock mixture taken from a graphite mine dump in Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province, China. Combined with the simulation calculation of discrete element numerical software (PFC2D 7.0), the effects of freeze–thaw cycling on electrochemical impedance spectrometry (EIS) mesoscopic parameters, uniaxial compressive strength, and crack propagation of soil–rock mixtures were analyzed. The intrinsic relationship between mesoparameters and macroscopic mechanical properties was established. The results showed that as the number of freeze–thaw cycles increases from 0 to 15, the mesopores inside the soil–rock mixture gradually increase, and the angular similarity of distribution characteristics increases by 5.25%. The uniaxial compressive strength and the peak secant modulus increase exponentially with the increase in the number of freeze–thaw cycles, the uniaxial compressive strength decreases by 47.62%, and the peak secant modulus decreases by 75.87%. The peak strain and pore compaction stage showed an exponential increase and an increasing trend, respectively, and the peak strain increased from 2.115% to 4.608%. The failure mode was basically similar in different cycles; the failure cracks extended from the corners to the middle and lower parts before the failure finally occurred. The types of failure cracks were mainly tensile cracks, followed by tensile shear cracks and the fewest compression shear cracks. The similarity and uniaxial compressive strength conformed to a good linear relationship with the number of freeze–thaw cycles, with the uniaxial compressive strength decreasing linearly with the increase in similarity.