Study on the rainfall erosion resistance of xanthan gum- guar gum ecological substrates

Juan  Wan; Yunlong  Jia; Henglin  Xiao; Shaoping  Huang; Zhonggeng  Tang

doi:10.6180/jase.202603_29(3).0001

Study on the rainfall erosion resistance of xanthan gum- guar gum ecological substrates

Juan Wan^1,2, Yunlong Jia^1,2, Henglin Xiao³This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Shaoping Huang^1,2, and Zhonggeng Tang^1,2

¹School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Environment, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, 430068, China

²Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic China, Wuhan, 430068, China

³State Key Laboratory of Precision Blasting, Jianghan University, Wuhan, 430056, China

Received: February 24, 2025
Accepted: May 19, 2025
Publication Date: June 15, 2025

Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.202603_29(3).0001

In order to mitigate the ecological impact of traditional binders (such as silicate cement) used for slope re inforcement, the present study employed xanthan gum (XG), guar gum (GG), and their hybrid gum (HG) to replace traditional binder materials for preparing eco-friendly slope protection substrates, and conducts vegetation trials. It analyses the effects of different types and dosages of gums on plant germination rates and projected coverage, determining the optimal dosage for each gum. Based on the optimal proportions, rainfall erosion tests were conducted on slope models to analyze the erosion resistance of various gum slope protection schemes compared to bare soil slopes, alongside variations in substrate moisture content and slope damage characteristics. The results indicate that the vegetation performance of XG substrate increases with higher dosages, while the performance of GG and HG first increases and then decreases with higher dosages. The optimal improvements in vegetation performance are observed at 2% XG, 1.5% GG, and 1% HG. A rainfall erosion test with an intensity of 1 mm/min for one hour was conducted on slope models of “XG-ryegrass”, “GG-ryegrass”, “HG-ryegrass” and “Clay”. Compared to “Clay”, the soil loss for “XG-ryegrass”, “GG-ryegrass”, and “HG-ryegrass” is decreased by 65.25%, 71.55%, and 66.17%; the slope erosion is decreased by 66.9%, 70.4%, and 68.71%; the slope failure levels are classified as Grade III, superior to the Grade VII of “Clay”. These three combined soil stabilization methods exhibit excellent rainfall erosion resistance and slope protection effects.

Keywords: Xanthan gum; Guar gum; Ecological substrate; Rainfall erosion resistance

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