Role of silica in additive improvement of engineering characteristics of expansive soil

Abstract

Expansive soils, on account of their typical swelling and shrinkage characteristics pose a lot of problems for construction engineers. These swelling and shrinkage characteristics are attributed to presence of certain minerals in expansive soils and they swell in presence of water and shrink otherwise. This alternate swelling and shrinkage endangers safety of the structures built over such soils and they need to be treated to improve upon such a behavior which can be done by addition to such soils, certain admixtures also containing silica. If any improvement is done by adding certain admixtures, such improvement is known as additive improvement. In this paper we will discuss about role of silica in achieving improvements.