WorldWide Drilling Resource

62 NOVEMBER 2015 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® New Geotechnical Engineering Center Turns to Nature for Solutions Adapted from a Press Release from Arizona State University Arizona State University (ASU) will lead a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center to pioneer ad- vances in geotechnical engineering. The consortium of university, industry, and government partners has been awarded $18.5 million to establish the Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics (CBBG) to expand the emerging field of biogeotechnical engineering. CBBG’s researchers will focus on nature-compatible approaches to enhance the strength of civil infrastructure, improving the effective- ness of environmental protection and ecological restoration methods, and developing ways to make infrastructure construction and natural resource development operations more sustainable. The center’s university partners include the Georgia Institute of Technology, New Mexico State University, and the University of California, Davis. Engineers and scientists at those institutions will collaborate with ASU researchers to investigate the use of natural un- derground biological processes for engineering soil in ways which will reduce construction costs while mitigating natural hazards and en- vironmental degradation. CBBG’s researchers will endeavor to either employ or emulate natural processes in developing innovative methods and technologies for engineering geotechnical systems. “In billions of years of evolution, nature has come up with some very elegant solutions to the problems we want to solve,” said CBBG’s director and ASU Regents’ Professor Edward Kavazanjian. “By em- ploying or mimicking these natural processes, we should be able to devise some of our own elegant solutions.” Much of the center’s work will focus on developing bio-based methods of strengthening soils as a way to produce more solid ground for building foundations and to prevent erosion. For instance, researchers will explore the use of microbial organisms to help stabilize soils. Certain kinds of microbes produce an enzyme which can cause calcium carbonate to precipitate in porous soils, thereby hardening the ground, making it more resistant to erosion, and providing a stronger foundation for construction. Calcium carbonate precipitation can also be used in lieu of Portland cement to stabilize pavement subgrades and to create bio-bricks, soil particles bound together into building blocks for infrastructure construction. Other efforts will involve attempting to figure out how to equal the performance of trees in their natural ability to stabilize soil against erosion and provide support against wind and other loads through their root systems. “The best man-made soil-reinforcing el- ements and foundation systems we have developed are not as efficient as trees at stabilizing soil. We want to be able to design soil- reinforcement and foundation systems that work like tree root systems,” Kavazanjian said. Researchers will also seek to develop technologies matching some of the subterranean earth-moving and stabilization capabilities of burrowing insects and small mammals. “Ants are a hundred times more energy-efficient at tunneling than our current technology. They excavate very carefully and their tunnels al- most never collapse,” Kavazanjian said. “If we could do what ants can do, we could make underground mining much safer.” Similarly, if engineers could design a probe with sensor technology and a guidance system to effectively drill and tunnel through soil like a mole, it would significantly improve subsurface exploration and characterization. This could lead to building stronger and safer roadways, bridges, dams, power plants, pipelines, and buildings, and more efficient oil drilling and mining operations. Advancements in biogeotechnical engineering could also lead to signifi- cant improvements in cleaning up environmental contaminants and restoring land stripped through erosion or industrial-scale resource extraction. In addition, 15 universities from around the world including some in Europe, Asia, and South America, are expected to collaborate with CBBG on research and educational programs. The center’s Deputy Director Claudia Zapata, in collaboration with Professor Wilhelmina Savenye, will oversee implementation of an education outreach and diversity program aimed at K-12 schools, community colleges, and university undergraduates. According to Kavazanjian, the initial NSF funding supporting the new center for five years, amounts to the nation’s largest single investment in geotechnical research. The center is expected to become a self-supporting enterprise within ten years. “This center has emerged from an idea Ed Kavazanjian has been conceptualizing and promoting in his professional community for the past several years, and it is great to see it come to fruition,” said Kyle Squires, ASU’s Fulton Schools’ interim dean. “Solutions born from the center will change how we build on and in the earth, and educate a workforce capable of putting research into industry practice.” Photo of ASU Regents’ Professor Edward Kavazanjian by Jessica Hochreiter/ASU. Dealmakers Michels Corporation took possession of a new Prime Dri l l ing rig at a key ceremony held in Brownsvi l le, Wisconsin. The new rig, manufactured by Prime Drilling GmbH of Wenden, Germany, was purchased through trenchless equipment manufacturer TT Technologies of Aurora, Illinois. Pictured are Benjamin, Michels Corporation; Ralf, Prime Drilling; with Scott and Bill Brennan of TT Technologies. TT Technologies Send your deals to: promotions@ worldwidedrillingresource.com