BIOPOLYMER EFFECT ON SANDY SOIL STRENGTH

Traditional soil stabilization method causes serious pollution problem which hinder the development of environment-friendly society in China. This research uses environment-friendly material biopolymer as an additive to explore its effect on soil unconfined compressive strength and shear strength after different curing time. Results indicate:with the increase of curing time, the unconfined compressive strength and shear strength of sand treated with xanthan gum biopolymer improved significantly; the addition of xanthan gum increased the soil cohesion to increase soil strength; it can be found by scanning electron microscope observation images that xanthan gum biopolymer aggregated around sand particles, connecting individual soil particles together, and forming larger aggregates from discrete particles, which plays a role in changing soil structure. The environment-friendly green organic material xanthan gum biopolymer can significantly improve the strength of soil, showing its potential in geotechnical engineering applications.