Investigation of engineering properties of soils improved with acacia gum (arabic gum)

Today, instead of the traditional additives used for soil improvement, the use of alternative materials that do not harm the nature and waste has attracted the attention of the researchers. In this thesis, the usability of acacia gum (Arabic Gam-AG) biopolymer, which is an alternative additive to the traditional additives of sandy soils and natural clay soils, in soil improvement was investigated. Recycled sand (GDK), river sand (NK) and natural clay soil were used in the experiments. In this context, a series of experiments were carried out for 1, 7, 14 and 21 days curing periods by applying wet mixture to sand soil samples as 2.5%, 5.0%, 7.5% and 10.0% by weight. Time-dependent settling behavior was investigated for 1, 7, 14 and 21-day curing periods by applying wet mix method to natural clay soil sample at 1%, 2% and 3% by weight. As a result, it was observed that as the curing time increased, the standard compressive strengths of the improved NK and GDK increased significantly and the permeability of the soil decreased significantly. It was observed that the time-dependent settlement values of the natural clay soil decreased as the curing time and AG biopolymer content increased. With this study, it was determined that recycled sand could be used as an alternative construction material to river sand. In addition, AG was found to be an environmentally friendly additive that could be used to improve the engineering properties of both soils.