Abstract
Oil leakage will not only pollute the soil but also change its physical-mechanical behavior, and loess has complex properties in the environment of oil presence. Artificial loess contaminated by diesel oil is collected as the research object. The physical and mechanical properties of clean loess and contaminated loess, including liquid and plastic limits, permeability, compression properties, and compressive strength characteristics, are estimated through a series of laboratory tests under different oil contents, water contents, and dry densities. Results show that liquid limits, plastic limits, and permeability coefficient of diesel-contaminated loess decrease with the increase of oil content. The compression modulus and compressive strength of diesel-contaminated loess increase with the increase of dry density at the same oil content. Adding diesel oil, the change law of the unconfined compressive strength of contaminated loess is opposite at the two different water contents. The variation of the compression modulus and unconfined compressive strength of diesel oil-contaminated loess is basically identical at the same condition. The findings of this study would be expected to bridge the gap between theory and practice in treatment and remediation of contaminated soil in the region of oil production.
Highlights
Oil leakage is accidental in most cases, such as oil exploitation, transportation pipeline damage, coastal facility discharge, and oil tank accident
Atterberg limits or consistency of loess is characterized by liquid limits (LL), plastic limits (PL), and plasticity index (PI)
Underthe two different water contents, the change law of the unconfined compressive strength of contaminated loess with the increase of oil content is opposite at the same dry density
Summary
Oil leakage is accidental in most cases, such as oil exploitation, transportation pipeline damage, coastal facility discharge, and oil tank accident. The cases of soil and water contaminated by oil leakage are increasingly serious [1, 2]. Oil leakage contaminates the soil and changes its physical and mechanical properties [4,5,6]. Aiban [12] concluded that the water content and temperature had a certain effect on the physical and mechanical properties of oil-contaminated sand. Abousnina et al [14] studied the physical and mechanical properties of contaminated fine sand and concluded that the water absorption, permeability, and shear strength of sand decreased with the Geofluids increase of oil content. Ostovar et al [15] carried out a series of laboratory tests to study the effect of crude oil contamination on properties of permeability and bearing capacity. The physical-mechanical behaviors of sand contaminated by oil are basically the same
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