No abstract

Due to numerous environmental concerns in recent years, the search for and the development of sustainable technologies have been pursued. In particular, environmentally friendly methods of soil improvement, such as the potential use of biopolymers, have been researched. Previous studies on the use of biopolymers in soil improvement have shown that they can provide substantial strengthening efficiencies. However, in order to fully understand the applicability of biopolymer treated soils, various properties of these soils such as their dynamic properties must be considered. In this study, the dynamic properties of gel-type biopolymer treated soils were observed through the use of resonant column tests. Gellan gum and Xanthan gums were the target gel-type biopolymers used in this study, and the target soil for this study was jumunjin sand, the standard sand of Korea. Through this study it was demonstrated that biopolymers can be used to enhance the dynamic properties of the soil, and that they offer possibilities of reuse to reduce earthquake related soil failures.

<p>Microbial biopolymers are introduced as a new soil binder which regarded to be environmentally-friendly materials in terms of low carbon emission and low impact on the soil ecosystem. In geotechnical engineering and agriculture, various gel-type materials have been used to improve the water absorbability of sandy soils, and control surface erosion. In this study, the soil-water characteristics of xanthan gum biopolymer-treated sand-clay mixtures are evaluated through a laboratory program using a soil-water characterization apparatus. Sand-clay mixtures are treated with different xanthan gum concentrations as 0% (untreated), 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1.0%, to the mass of soil, respectively. Consequently, the xanthan gum-soil water characteristic curve results show the enhanced water holding capacity of soils with higher xanthan gum contents. The presence of xanthan gum hydrogels in the soil increases the initial and residual water contents. Biopolymers retain moisture loss from the soil, which makes the slope of the soil-water reduction curve to be more gradual.</p>

There has been a proliferation of equations proposed to describe the unsaturated shear strength envelope going back to the 1970s. However, there have been limited studies to verify the suitability of one unsaturated shear strength equation over another. Most proposed shear strength equations have attempted to relate the shear strength of an unsaturated soil to some aspect(s) of the soil–water characteristic curve (SWCC). Estimation procedures have generally focused on using that of air-entry value (AEV) as defined by the drying (or desorption) branch of the degree of saturation SWCC (S-SWCC). This paper studies the suitability of using two “anchor points” (or reference points) along the drying S-SWCC to estimate the unsaturated soil shear strength function. The anchor points referred to are the air-entry value (AEV) of the soil and the “residual suction point” of the soil defined in terms of the S-SWCC. Shear strength conditions associated with both so-called anchor points are used as “boundary conditions” that should be satisfied when estimating the shear strength function for unsaturated soils. Past research laboratory measurements published in the research literature are used as part of the verification process for this study.

The use of a hydraulic barrier to prevent or constrain the water flow or/and residual contaminant-containing water from leaking, flowing into underground constructions such as tunnels has been addressed in the past decades. There are different types of barrier materials used to improve hydraulic properties such as soilbentonite, cement-bentonite, soil admixes using bentonite, cement, and asphalt, chemical and other additives mixed with the natural soil. In fact, the hydraulic barrier materials used for tunnels need to work well under the earth pressure and hydrostatic water pressure acting on the tunnel lining. In this study, a linear polysaccharide gellan gum, which has been investigated in the fields of pharmaceutical technology, biomedical applications, and food products, will be used to improve the hydraulic behavior of sand. The advantage of gellan gum biopolymer is its capable of forming hydrocolloid gels when mixed with heated water and limiting water flow through the gel performance in soil hydraulic conductivity control at various depth and pore pressure conditions. A pressurized hydraulic system allows performing various pore water pressure and confinement condition to observe the pore clogging behavior of gellan gum biopolymer treated sands. Furthermore, soil hydraulic conductivity variations due to changes in confinement pressure and pore water pressure will be observed.