Performance Evaluation of Biopolymer-treated Black cotton soil

This paper investigates the effect of biopolymers i.e xanthan gum (XG) and gaur gum (GG) for stabilizing black cotton soil. In recent years, it was observed that the usage of biopolymers has significantly reduced environmental effects due to traditional stabilization process. Biopolymers are synthesized products of microorganisms and plants emerging as a suitable alternative to ground improvement. In the current experimental work individual and collective performance of xanthan gum and gaur gum has been observed. The variation of xanthan gum and gaur gum was kept as 2%, 3% and 5% of dry soil weight. The results showed a significant improvement in strength properties of soil. The OMC-MDD relation was assessed through both light and heavy compaction. Maximum dry density showed a noteworthy increment where as the optimum moisture content was found to decrease in case of heavy compaction. The trend was exactly opposite for OMC and MDD in case of light compaction. An increasing trend was observed in consistency limit values with increase in additive percentage. Overall it was observed that xanthan gum showed comparatively better performance than Gaur Gum.