Effect of nano silica on the performance of cementitious grout for ground modification

Abstract

Growing infrastructure development gives rise to new advancements in construction industry. Nanotechnology contributes to the construction industry development by improvements made in the engineering properties of construction materials from the micro to the macro level as nano-composites. Cement plays a vital role in geotechnical applications as a chief material for wide range of ground modification techniques. Grouting is one of the techniques extensively applied to enhance advantageously the properties of different soil profiles and grain size with good reports of improved performance. This paper discusses the performance study made on a neat cementitious grout incorporated with nanosilica (nSiO2). This study has been performed on the grout with a w/c ratio 1.20 at 0%, 0.10%, 0.50%, 1.0%, 1.50% of nanosilica dosage to cement content. Various rheological properties of the grout were studied along with permeation grouting onto a coarse sand column. It has been found that the nano silica enriched cementitious grout results in higher groutability, flowability with controlled bleedability with higher efficiency, reduced permeability and remarkable changes in the compressive strength.