Evaluating the impact of light crude oil contaminations on geotechnical behaviors of the soil

Abstract EN

Crude oil spills contaminate the soil in many ways including environmental impact and physical and chemical changes of the properties of the host soils.

Organic liquids will affect the geotechnical behaviors of the soils.

For better understanding of the soil behaviors as a function of oil contaminations a deep experimental investigation was conducted on kaolinite clay and sandy soils.

These soils that were polluted by various amounts of crude oils (0%, 3%, 6%, 9%, 12%, and 15% by weight of dry soil).

The geotechnical characteristics of the uncontaminated and contaminated soils were determined including the plasticity indices, compaction characteristics, hydraulic conductivity, and linear shrinkage limit.

The outputs revealed a decline in dry density and optimum moisture content.

The hydraulic conductivity of both soil types decreased due to oil contaminations.

Crude oil contamination increased the plasticity indices and raised the linear shrinkage limit of clay soil.

Oil-contaminated soil obligates improvements and maintenance prior utilization as construction materials or agricultural purposes