Empirical modelling of shear behavior of oil contaminated sand - geogrid interface

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on the experimental studies, a semi empirical predictive model has been presented and discussed in this paper to simulate the interface shear behavior of used diesel engine oil (UDEO) contaminated (0%, 2%, 4%, 6% and 8%) sand and geogrids. Experiments were conducted in a standard large-scale direct shear apparatus, which demonstrated that when the oil content increases from 0% to 8%, there is a drop in shear strength at the interface, with a marginal strain hardening trend. While the peak friction angle decreased as the UDEO content increased, the apparent cohesion showed an increasing trend. In addition to UDEO content, the normal stress is also an influencing parameter in the interface shear behavior. In order to simulate the interface shear behavior, a best-fit semi-empirical hyperbolic model has been suggested from the observed data using least square error method. The proposed model showed an excellent agreement with the experimentally observed behavior for both sand–sand and sand–geogrid interface.