Assessment of Guar Gum Biopolymer Treatment toward Mitigation of Desiccation Cracking on Slopes Built with Expansive Soils

Abstract

Expansive soil embankments are prone to shallow slope failures caused by associated swell–shrink movements. Previous studies have confirmed that seasonal changes and corresponding volumetric changes are responsible for desiccation cracking, which is a major factor behind shallow slope failures of highway embankments. For the past few years, soil stabilization proved to be an effective way to mitigate the swell–shrink property of expansive clays. The current study addresses the feasibility of guar gum biopolymer in mitigating the swell–shrink behavior of clays and in turn making it possible to adopt them as stable geomaterials. The sustainable benefits of biopolymers far exceed the environmental benefits from conventional stabilizers that contractors typically use. This paper presents a comprehensive laboratory study, followed by finite difference modeling analysis, on biopolymeric guar gum–remediated expansive soils collected from shallow slope failure-prone areas. For this study, two dam locations, at Grapevine Lake and Joe Pool Lake, Texas, that were originally constructed with expansive soils, were considered. The engineering performance of biopolymer-treated soils was evaluated and an optimum dosage was recommended for mitigating desiccation cracking at the test sites. Slope stability analyses were conducted using Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in Three Dimensions software by adopting laboratory-determined strength parameters to determine the range of the factor of safety for the slopes. The variation of the factor of safety computed with the inclusion of enhanced engineering parameters from guar gum treatments revealed the advantages of adopting this treatment.

Feasibility of lime and biopolymer treatment for soft clay improvement: a comparative and complementary approach

“…This is plausible because the higher GG contents, which attract more hydroxyl groups, are highly viscous, and could require additional time to adequately dehydrate, crosslink, and produce a denser soil matrix during crystallization (Ayeldeen et al 2017;Fatehi et al 2021;Sujatha and Saisree 2019). Similar decline in strength has been reported previously (Acharya, et al 2017;Fatehi et al 2021).…”

“…Further improvements were also recorded with 7-day curing. In another study, GG was employed at different percentages (0.25, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5%) to stabilize two expansive soils denoted as GV and JP soils for use in construction of slopes (Acharya et al 2017). The variation of the shear strength parameters (effective cohesion and effective friction angle) showed disparity in behavior at various GG contents.…”

Characteristics of Biopolymer Guar Gum Solution Injection for Eco-Friendly Ground Reinforcement

“…구아검의 가장 중요한 특징은 온도에 따라 빠르게 수화되 어 낮은 농도에서도 고점성을 발현이 가능한 점이다 (Mudgil et al, 2014). 지반공학적 관점에서 구아검은 사막화 모래 및 팽창성 지반의 개량을 위해 활용도 가능하다 (Acharya et al, 2017;Puppala and Pedarla, 2017). (1) 구아검 수용액은 전단 변형률 속도 증가에 따라 겉보기 점도가 감소하며 전단응력이 증가하는 전단담화의 경…”

Influence of feedstock type and particle size on efficiency of biochar in improving tensile crack resistance and shear strength in lean clayey soil

“…Desiccation cracks can promote unfavorable conditions such as water infiltration, leaches leakage, reduction in soil strength, and increased water evaporation, which can compromise environmental as well as geohazard safety (Bora et al, 2020;Bordoloi et al, 2018;Kumar et al, 2020;Sadasivam and Reddy, 2015;Zong et al, 2014). In the last few decades, attempts have been made to reduce the risk occurred due to the desiccation cracks by using innovative amendments such as natural fibers, biopolymers, waste sludge, fly ash, and biochar (Acharya et al, 2017;Bordoloi et al, 2018;Hulugalle, 1996;Kumar et al, 2020;Mei et al, 2020;Tang et al, 2012). Among them, biochar is one of the most recent developments (Bordoloi et al, 2018(Bordoloi et al, , 2019 that has been promoted due to its benefit of carbon sequestration and slope stability.…”