Treatment of Soft Soil with Nano Magnesium Oxide
Mohd Raihan Taha * , Ibtehaj Taha Jawad + and Zaid Hameed Majeed ++
* Dept of Civil & Structural Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi Selangor, MALAYSIA, drmrt@eng.ukm.my
+ Dept of Civil & Structural Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi Selangor, MALAYSIA, ibtehaj78@yahoo.com, ibtehaj@eng.ukm.my
+ Department of civil engineering, college of Engineering, University of Babylon, Babil, Iraq
++ Dept of Civil & Structural Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi Selangor, MALAYSIA, zaidalhaswan@yahoo.com
++ Department of civil engineering, college of Engineering, University of Babylon, Babil, Iraq
Abstract The effect of nano magnesium oxide on some geotechnical properties of a local soil is investigated. Four different remolded water contents were used to prepare the tested specimens. These water contents represent the optimum and wet of optimum conditions. The soil was then mixed with nano magnesium oxide ranging between 0 to 1.0 % by dry weight of soil. Consistency limits and uncon-fined compression tests were conducted to study the change in basic soil behavior. The results of the study indicated that the plasticity index exhibits significant re-duction compared with untreated soil. The reduction is in proportion with curing time and nano magnesium oxide surface area (i.e. by using N-MgO) as well as the doses of N-MgO. The unconfined compressive strength of treated soil increased significantly over time with increasing percentage of N-MgO. The mechanical be-havior of treated soil changed from ductile to brittle associated with remarkable increase in Young s modulus. The results also revealed that the stiffness developed from soft and medium stiff in the case of original soil to a very stiff soil particular-ly for soil – N-MgO mixtures.