Some Clayey soils are generally categorized as weak soils, and structures lying on such soils have been exposed to severe damage. Therefore, the central thesis of this paper is the impact of a waste material known as a silica fume as nano and micro material on soil's behaviour. To evaluate the effects of those additives on Atterberg limits, compaction characteristics and unconfined compressive strength, clayey soil samples have been transformed using micro and nano silica fume (by-product materials). In the current investigation, silica fume is used at four different percentages: 0, 2, 4, and 7%. The results show that the plasticity index of soil decreases with the addition of micro silica and increases with the addition of nano-silica. Increasing nano silica percentage improves the dry density of the compacted soil and reduces the optimum moisture content. An opposite behavior is observed with adding micro silica to compacted soil. Finally, 4% of silica fume is found to be the optimum dosage to improve the unconfined compressive strength of the treated soil with both additives. As a result, treating the weak clay soil with micro and/or nano-silica fume has the potential to be impactful.
Keywords: clayey soil; nanomaterial; silica fume; soil improvement.