Expansive soils undergo severe volume changes corresponding to change in moisture content and a clay mineral, montmorillonite is the source of such a volume change. Because of their alternate swelling and shrinkage, expansive soils result in detrimental cracking of civil engineering structures such as foundations, retaining walls, pavements, airports, sidewalks, canal beds, and linings. The goal of this work is to examine the compressive strength of stabilized soil with cement and silica fume to show the impact of silica fume on improving the strength of stabilized soil. In this experimental study, montmorillonite was used instead of natural clayey soil for the simplicity of the analysis of results. Various tests were performed on montmorillonite such as Atterberg's limits, Proctor compaction test, and unconfined compressive strength test. For stabilization samples with 10% cement and 10% cement with 1% silica fume was prepared. Strength of stabilized sample with 10% cement and 10% cement with 1% silica fume were compared. The experimental work showed that only 1% silica fume can enhance the unconfined compressive strength of more than 30%.
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