Fall cone test on biopolymer-treated clay

Abstract

Fall cone tests were conducted to evaluate the consistency variations of clay soils treated with six types of biopolymers, e.g. carrageenan kappa gum (KG), locust bean gum (BG), xanthan gum (XG), agar gum (AG), guar gum (GG) and sodium alginate (SA) at various concentrations (e.g. between 0.1% to 5% biopolymer to soil mass ratio). The dependences of shear viscosity on water content, and undrained shear strength on water content were established. The results indicated that KG and SA increased the liquid limit (LL) of treated soils after the biopolymer content exceeded a certain limit (e.g. 0.5%), BG and GG contributed to a peak point in LL at biopolymer concentration of 1% to 2%, while XG and AG almost did not change the LL at all. The plastic limit (PL) was about 25% to 50% of the LL, leading to a trend of plasticity index (PI) similar to liquid limit. In order to further simplify the testing procedure and get the Atterberg limits for biopolymer-treated soil, one-point method was adopted.