Investigation the impacts of fuel oil contamination on the behaviour of passive piles group in clayey soils

Abstract

The current study highlights the impacts of medium fuel oil (MFO) on the behaviour of passive piles groups driven into contaminated clayey soil samples. The piles groups are axially loaded and subjected to the lateral soil movement resulted from the construction of a nearby embankment. The soil samples are contaminated synthetically in the laboratory with two percentages of MFO, 10 and 20% of the dry weight of soil. An incremental surcharge was applied at distances of 5 D and 10 D from the edge of the piles cap, where D is the spacing between piles in the group. The results obtained from the experimental physical model are the vertical and lateral displacements at the soil surface and strains along the pile shaft. The finite difference method used to calculate the rotation of pile, pile deflection, shear force and soil reaction along the pile shaft from the bending moment calculated from the measured strains. Based on the results of tests, increasing the percentage of MFO in soil sample causes increasing the effects of surcharge load on the behaviour of piles. Also, increasing the distance spacing between the edge of pile cap and embankment leads to decreasing the effects of a nearby embankment on the behaviour of piles driven into contaminated soil samples.