SHELL | 2022

WHAT IS THE INFLUENCE OF MILD ELECTRIC STIMULATIONS ON THE MECHANICS OF MARINE SOILS?

More than half of the world’s population lives in coastal areas and is daily affected by the detrimental effects of coastal erosion, which include coastal property loss, damage to structures, and loss of land.

Currently, various approaches are available to control coastal erosion, but none of them is both effective and environmentally friendly.
This project aims to investigate a new, effective, and sustainable approach to strengthen marine soils and limit coastal erosion, with the ultimate aim to enhance the resilience of coastal areas against local sea level rise, strong wave action, coastal flooding, and other processes exacerbated by human-induced climate change.

Specifically, this project investigates the promise of using low-voltage electric current to strengthen marine soils via the precipitation of binding crystals in the pore network of such materials. The efficacy and effects of this phenomenon, called electrodeposition, will be studied via advanced laboratory tests and numerical simulations. This research endeavor also has the promise to develop new techniques and technologies to strengthen marine soils in effective and sustainable manners. Applications of these novel techniques and technologies include the prevention of natural hazards (e.g., erosion and flooding control, slope stabilization, and liquefaction potential reduction) and the protection of marine structures and infrastructures against coastal threats (e.g., foundation and roadbed strengthening against diffused and localized settlements).

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Project team


Alessandro F. Rotta Loria
Associate Professor
Yeong-Man Kwon
Post-doctoral Researcher

Project team


Alessandro F. Rotta Loria
Associate Professor
Yeong-Man Kwon
Post-doctoral Researcher

Journal publications

→ Landivar Macias, A., Jacobsen, S. and Rotta Loria, A. F. (2024) Electrodeposition of calcareous cement from seawater in marine silica sands. Communications Earth and Environment.  Article featured by Comm. Earth Env., as well as by The Economist, BBC, and The United Nations. 5(442).
→ Kwon, Y.-M. and Rotta Loria, A. F. (2024) Electrochemical cementation of granular materials with different fabric. Applied Materials Today. 38: 102235.