The effect of nanokaolinite on the compressibility and atterberg limit of the silty loess soil in Golestan province

Abstract

The loess in Golestan Province can be divided into clayey, silty and sandy loess based on the geological engineering properties. The silty loess has great importance due to the extended surface and the several reported risks. Loess soil is one of the problematic soils in which some of the geotechnical properties should be modified or improved before conducting the projects. Loess is one of the soil types available in many countries and a great number of geotechnical risks were reported regarding them. The current study investigated the effect of adding nanokaolinite on the compressibility and the Atterberg limit of the silty loess soil of Golestan province through the field sampling and performing tests with the different percent of nanokaolinite. To prepare the nanokaolinite, the mechanical method of ball milling was employed. According to the grain size distribution tests, the soil sample is CL-ML type based on unified classification. Standard proctor test results showed that adding the nanokaolinite increased the maximum dry unit weight of the soil at first and then it was decreased. Moreover, adding nanokaolinite resulted in the significant increases of liquid and plastic limits while nanokaolinite amount more than 5% led to the decrease in plastic index.