https://journalasrj.com/index.php/ASRJ <p><strong>Asian Soil Research Journal</strong> <strong>(ISSN: 2582-3973) </strong>aims to publish high quality papers (<a href="https://journalasrj.com/index.php/ASRJ/general-guideline-for-authors">Click here for Types of paper</a>) in all aspects of soil research. By not excluding papers based on novelty, this journal facilitates the research and wishes to publish papers as long as they are technically correct and scientifically motivated. The journal also encourages the submission of useful reports of negative results. This is a quality controlled, OPEN peer-reviewed, open-access INTERNATIONAL journal.</p> <p> </p> en-US [email protected] (Asian Soil Research Journal) [email protected] (Asian Soil Research Journal) Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:02:45 +0000 OJS 3.3.0.21 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 https://journalasrj.com/index.php/ASRJ/article/view/244 <p>The growing need for sustainable materials in geotechnical engineering has encouraged the use of agricultural waste-derived nanomaterials for soil improvement. This study investigated the potential of nano-silica synthesised from rice husk ash (RHA) to improve the index properties and compaction characteristics of lateritic soil. The nano-silica was produced through washing, controlled burning, acid treatment, filtration, drying, ball milling, and calcination at 700 °C. X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction analyses showed that the synthesised nano-silica contained 94.18% SiO₂ and exhibited an amorphous structure. The natural lateritic soil was classified as CL under the Unified Soil Classification System and A-7-6 (10) according to AASHTO, with a liquid limit of 47.2% and a plasticity index of 18.7%. Different proportions of nano-silica were added to the soil, and the treated samples were subjected to Atterberg limits and compaction tests using different compactive efforts. The results showed that nano-silica reduced the plasticity of the lateritic soil, with the plasticity index decreasing from 18.7% to 6.7% at 2.5% nano-silica content. The highest maximum dry densities of 1.57, 1.64 and 1.78 Mg/m³ were obtained at 1.5% nano-silica for British Standard Light, West African Standard and British Standard Heavy compaction, respectively. The corresponding optimum moisture contents were 21.5%, 18.5% and 15.0%. Overall, the findings indicate that rice husk ash-derived nano-silica has good potential for modifying the plasticity and compaction behaviour of weak lateritic soil while providing a sustainable means of converting agricultural waste into a useful geotechnical material.</p> Adah Stanley Oyigocho, Hinafulo Simon Joel Copyright (c) 2026 Author(s). The licensee is the journal publisher. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://journalasrj.com/index.php/ASRJ/article/view/244 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000