Laboratory Comparison of Nanoclay Effect on Clay and Sandy Soil Hydraulic Conductivity in Three Different Density

Hydraulic conductivity of soils is one of the most important parameters in designing soil structures, water, and environmental resources management. Hydraulic conductivity in the soil varies with the size of their particles. Several studies by different researchers on fine-grained soil hydraulic conductivity and coarse-grained soils are done. In some studies, the methods and materials used to reduce soil hydraulic conductivity. On the other hand, nanoclays are nanoparticles of layered mineral silicates. Depending on chemical composition and nanoparticle morphology, nano clays are organized into several classes such as montmorillonite, bentonite, kaolinite, hectorite, and halloysite(Majeed and Taha, 2013). Organically modified nanoclays (organoclays) are an attractive class of hybrid organic-inorganic nanomaterials with potential uses in polymer nanocomposites, as rheological modifiers, gas absorbents, and drug delivery carriers(Abbasi et al, 2016).Plate-like montmorillonite is the most common nanoclay used in materials applications. Montmorillonite consists of ~ 1 nm thick aluminosilicate layers surface-substituted with metal cations and stacked in ~ 10 µm-sized multilayer stacks. Depending on the surface modification of the clay layers, montmorillonite can be dispersed in a polymer matrix to form a polymer-clay nanocomposite. Within the nanocomposite individual, nm-thick clay layers become fully separated to form plate-like nanoparticles with a very high (nm × µm) aspect ratio.In this study, the effect of different amounts of montmorillonite nano clay (0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1%) on the hydraulic conductivity in three different densities (85, 90, and 95%) of sandy and clay soils have been investigated experimentally.