Collapsibility and Shear Strength of Gypseous Soil Improved by Nano Silica Fume (NSF)

Abstract

The problematic soils have complex and irregular behavior such as gypseous soils, which concentrated mainly in the dry and semi-dry regions in the world. In Iraq, the gypseous soils cover about 30 to 35% of its total area in the west desert and extended to the southern parts of Iraq. The gypseous soils experience sudden collapse upon wetting. The present paper focuses on studying the effects of nano silica fume (NSF) on the collapsibility and shear strength of gypseous soil before and after soaking. Also, this study, the influence of NSF on the chemical and physical characteristics of gypseous soil have been investigated. A gypseous soil sample obtained from Al-Najaf Sea has gypsum content of 42%. The gypseous soil samples are mixed with three percentages of nano silica fume (1, 2, and 4) % calculated as ratio of the dry mass of soil to measure their influence on the geotechnical characteristics of soil samples. The collapse potential of gypseous soil is reduced with increasing the content of nano silica fume. Also, increasing the content of NSF and curing time resulted in increasing the shear strength of soil samples.