Mechanical properties of dredged soil reinforced by xanthan gum and fibers

Biopolymers have become popular in geotechnical engineering as they provide a carbon-neutral alternative for soil solidification. Xanthan gum (XG) and jute fiber (JF) were selected to solidify the Yellow River dredged soil. The mechanical behavior of solidified dredged soil (SDS) was investigated using a series of uniaxial compression and splitting tension tests at different XG and JF contents and fiber lengths. The results indicate that on the 28th day, the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) values of SDS samples reached 2.83 MPa and splitting tensile strength (STS) of 0.763 MPa at an XG content of 1.5%. When the JF content was greater than 0.9%, the STS of the SDS samples decreased. This is because that the large fiber content weakened the cementation ability of XG. The addition of JF can significantly increase the strain at peak strength of SDS samples. There is a linear relationship between the UCS and STS of the dredged soils solidified by XG and JF. Microanalysis shows that the strength of SDS samples was improved mainly via the cementation of XG itself and the network structure formed by JF with soil particles. The dredged soil reinforced by XG and JF shows better mechanical performance and has great potential for application. (C) 2023 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).