Improvement in the Hydraulic Properties of Kaolinite with Adding Nanoclay

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 M. Sc., Civil Engineering Department, Yazd University

2 Assistant professor, Civil Engineering Department, Yazd University

3 Assistant professor, Civil and environmental Engineering Department, AmirKabir University of Technology (AUT)

Abstract

Due to special properties of clay, it has widely been used in geotechnical and geoenvironmental projects such as barriers in which very low seepage is required.
With advances in nanotechnology, we are witnessing of nanomaterials application to modify material properties in different branches of engineering such as geotechnical engineering. In this study, the hydraulic properties of Kaolinite extracted from Zenuz mine have been investigated experimentally by using nanoclay as an additive. A series of tests, comprising Atterberg limits, standard compaction, one dimensional consolidation and cation exchange capacity test, were conducted on Kaolinite and modified Kaolinite with 1%, 2%, 4%, and 8% nanoclay. According to experimental results, adding 8% nanoclay to Kaolinite increased plasticity index to 184%, and decreased the hydraulic conductivity 300 times when compared with raw Kaolinite. In addition, results of cation exchange capacity test showed that nanoclay caused an increase in cation exchange capacity from 12 to 21 meq/100 gr. This increase was related to a considerable increase in the amount of Na+.

Keywords

References

[1] Grabowska-Olszewska, B, “Modelling Physical properties of mixture of clays: example of a twocomponent
mixture of Kaolinite and Montmorillonite”,Applied Clay Science, Elsevier, pp 251-259, 2003.
[2] Retnamony, G. R. and Mehter, M. A, “Effect of clay mineralogy on coefficient of consolidation”, Clays and
Clay Minerals, Vol. 46, No. 5, pp 596-600, 1998.
[3] Lan, T. and Kaviratna, P. D, “Mechanism of clay tactoid exfoliation in epoxy-clay nanocomposites”,
Chem Master, pp 2144-2150, 1995.
[4] Mitchel, J. K. and Soga, K, “Fundamentals of soil behavior”, John Wiley & Sons, Third edition, 2005.
[5] Zhang, M., Takahashi, M., Morin, H. R., Endo, H.and Esaki, T, “Determining the hydraulic properties
of saturated, low-permeability geological materials in the laboratory: Advanced in theory and practice”,
Evaluation and remediation of low permeability,ASTM, 2002.
[6] Kalkan, E. and Akbulut, S. “The positive effects of silica fume on the permeability, swelling pressure
and compressive strength of natural clay liners”,Engineering Geology, Vol. 73, Elsevier, 2004.
[7] Ohtsubo, M., Anil, K. M., Li, L. and Higashi, T, “Effect of salt solution on the permeability of the mixtures
of soil and bentonite”, 5th ICEG Environmental Geotechnics, pp 601-607, 2006.
[8] Francisca, F. M. and Glatstein, D. A, “Long term hydraulic conductivity of compacted soils permeated
with landfill leachate”, Applied Clay Science, Elsevier,pp187-193, 2010.
[9] ASTM, “Annual book of ASTM standards”, ASTM,2001.
[10] Head, K. H, “Soil classification and compacting test,Manual of Soil Laboratory Testing”, Vol. 1, Pentech
Press, London, 1992.
[11] Callister, W, “Materials science and engineering”,John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
[12] Kaya, A. and Fang, H. Y, “The effects of organic fluids on physicochemical parameters of fine-grained
soils”, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 37, pp 943-950.
[13] Bazyar, M. H., Ghazi, H. and Mirkazemi, S. M,“Effect of nanoclay on engineering properties of
soil”, Forth International Congeress of Geotechnical Engineering and Soil Mechanic, Iran, 2010.
[14] Das, B. M, “Advanced soil mechanics”, Taylor & Francis, New York, NY 10016, USA, 2008.
[15] Kananizadeh, N., Ebadi, T., Khoshniat, S. A. and Mousavirizi, S. E, “The positive effects of Nanoclay
on the hydraulic conductivity of compacted Kahrizak clay permeated with landfill leachate”. Clean-Soil, Air,
Water, Vol. 7, Wiley, 2011.
[16] Nimmo, J. and Mello, K, “Centrifugal techniques for measuring saturated hydraulic conductivity”, Water
Resources Research, Vol. 27, No. 6, pp 1263-1269,1991.
[17] Sobolewski, M, “Various methods of the measurement of the permeability coefficient in soils- possibilities and
application”, Electronic journal of polish agricultural universities, Vol. 8, 2005.
[18] Fredlund, D. G, “The emergence of unsaturated soil mechanics”, Forth Spencer J. Buchanan lecture, Texas
university, 1996.
[19] Alshenawy, A. O, “Determination of the coefficient of the consolidation using different methods and study
the effect of applied pressure for different types of soils”, M.Sc. Thesis, King Saud university, 2007.
[20] Rhoades, J. D, “Methods of soil analysis”, Part 2,Second Edition, American Society of agronomy, Inc.
Soil Science society of American, Inc, 1986.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics