International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)

Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 2016, pp. 152158, Article ID: IJCIET_07_02_012

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ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316
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EFFECT OF DIESEL CONTAMINATION ON

GEOTECHNICAL PROPERTIES OF CLAY
NEAR BPCL
Dr. V.S PRADEEPAN
Principal, I.E.S College of Engineering, Trissur, India
V.P REETHI
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,
I.E.S College of engineering Trissur, India
N. NAMITHA
Postgraduate, Department of Civil Engineering,
I.E.S College of engineering Trissur, India
ABSTRACT
Oil contamination in soil may happen in many ways like oil spills during
transportation on the land or oil drilling, leakage from storage tanks, oil
tanker accidents etc. This contamination affects the environment very badly.
This paper presents the effect of diesel on the plasticity characteristics, density
and strength of the soil. The soil is taken from near BPCL, India and the soil
was contaminated by adding varying percentage of diesel oil. Compaction,
Atterberg limits and unconfined compression strength tests were conducted on
the soil samples. The liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index of the soil
increased as its diesel oil content increased. The optimum moisture content,
maximum dry unit weight and unconfined compression strength of the soil
decreases with increase in diesel oil content. Diesel oil contaminated soil
requires stabilisation or remediation before using it as construction material.
Keywords: Atterberg Limit, Unconfined Compressive Strength, Optimum
Moisture Content
Cite this Article: Dr. V.S Pradeepan, V.P Reethi and N. Namitha, Effect of
Diesel Contamination on Geotechnical Properties of Clay Near BPCL,
International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 7(2), 2016, pp.
152158.
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Effect of Diesel Contamination on Geotechnical Properties of Clay Near BPCL

1. INTRODUCTION
Oil spills and oil leakage from the storage tanks is one of the main problems facing
the oil producing countries of the world. The effect of theses leaks and spills create
problems to the environment. It pollutes subsurface water, changes the behaviour of
soil and also its engineering properties and loss in strength of soil, which leads to
differential settlement and cracks in existing foundation of structures. The typical
example of soil contamination is oil spills in Kuwait during the gulf war and oil spill
at Valdez, Alaska resulting from an oil tanker accident. The oil contamination in soil
causes a significant increase in the soil plasticity, loss in bearing capacity and
increases its settlement. In the sites like this contamination, any construction work is
risky and also the project cost increases. In this type of soil some remedial measures
are to be taken to stabilise the contaminated soil. In this paper it is aimed to
investigate the effect of diesel oil contamination on geotechnical properties of clay
near BPCL, India.

2. MATERIALS
2.1 SOIL
Soil used in this study is a grey coloured clayey soil which was collected from a
borrow pit of 1 m depth near BPCL, India

2.2 OIL
Oil used in this study is diesel purchased from Bharath petroleum dealer. Diesel oil
used has light yellow colour, specific gravity at 40 degree centigrade to be <.835 and
kinematic viscosity at 50 degree centigrade to be 73.5

3. METHODOLOGY
Samples were collected in jute bags, air dried and transported to the laboratory. It is
then powdered and sieved through a 4.75mm IS sieve and divided soil samples in to 5
portions. Diesel was added to each of the portions at 0%, 4%, 8%, 12% and 16% by
dry weight of soil sample. Soil- diesel oil mixture were thoroughly mixed and stored
in containers for 48 hours for allowing possible reaction. After that compaction,
atterberg limits and unconfined compression test was conducted .There is some
limitation for addition of more diesel oil to the soil sample. Using more than 16
percentage of diesel oil the soil tests are become difficult due to the looseness of the
particles and draining of excess oil during compaction test from the sample

4. BASIC PROPERTIES OF UNCONTAMINATED SOIL

Results of index properties, compaction and strength test on the uncontaminated soil
are presented in Table 1. According to the Unified soil classification (USC) system it
is classified as Sandy lean clay (CL), of low plasticity clay. Figure (1) graphically
illustrates its particle size distribution.

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Dr. V.S Pradeepan, V.P Reethi and N. Namitha

Percentage Finer (%)

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.001

sieve analysis
Hydrometer analysis

0.01

0.1

10

100

Particle size (mm)

Figure 1 Particle size distribution of uncontaminated soil
Table 1 Properties of the uncontaminated soil
Properties
Particle size distribution
Sand (0.075-4.75mm)
Silt and Clay (<0.075mm)
Unified soil classification system
Colour
Natural moisture content
Organic content
Specific gravity
Liquid limit
Plastic limit
Plasticity index
Shrinkage limit
Maximum dry unit weight
Optimum moisture content
Unconfined compressive strength

Value/Description
49.14%
50.74%
CL-Sandy clay
grey
40%
3.8%
2.7
41%
20%
21%
13%
18.5(kN/m3)
20.9 %
129(kN/m2)

5. RESULTS AND DISSCUSSION

5.1. Effects of diesel oil contamination on compaction characteristics of soil
The results of compaction test are shown in figure 2. As diesel oil contamination in
soil increases, both the optimum moisture content and maximum dry unit weight of
soil decreases. The diesel oil is hydrophobic and it coats itself around individual clay
particles and prevents the entry of water which interacts with clay particles, so it
reduces the amount of water needed by the soil to reach it maximum dry unit weights.
Therefore, optimum moisture content decreases with increasing diesel oil content. The
diesel oil in the soil creates some micro structural transformation and increases inter
layer expansion within clay minerals and also increase the thickness of diffused
double layer. Therefore, using the same compaction effort as that used for compacting
uncontaminated soil, the soil particles are less packed together and it leads decrease in
dry unit weight of contaminated soil.

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Maximum dry unit weight (kN/m3)

Effect of Diesel Contamination on Geotechnical Properties of Clay Near BPCL

19
18

0 % oil
4% oil

17

8% oil
12% oil

16

16% oil
15
0

10

15

20

25

30

water content (%)

Figure 2 Compaction curves of soil at different oil percentage

Figure 3 shows the variation of maximum dry unit weight and OMC with diesel
oil content. As diesel oil contamination in soil increases, both the optimum moisture
content and maximum dry unit weight of soil decreases14.5% and 9.7% respectively

Compaction characteristics

25

20

15
MAX DRY UNIT
WEIGHT(kN/m3)

10

OPTIMUM MOISTURE
CONTENT(%)

0
0

10

15

20

Diesel oil content (%)

Figure 3 Variation of maximum dry unit weight and OMC with oil content

5.2. Effect of diesel oil contamination on Atterberg limits of soil

Figure 4 shows the variation of Atterberg limits for different % of diesel. The liquid
limit, plastic limits and plasticity index of the soil increases progressively with
increase in diesel oil content. Addition of diesel oil to the soil creates a false increase
in the thickness of diffused double layer, this may be responsible for the increase in
the liquid and plastic limit 19.5% and 23% respectively. The plasticity index also
increased 12.5% with the increasing diesel oil content. It indicates that, contaminated
soil become less workable

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Dr. V.S Pradeepan, V.P Reethi and N. Namitha

60
50

Atterberg limits

40
30

liquid limit
plastic limit

20

plasticity index

10
0

10

15

20

Diesel oil content (%)

Figure 4 Variation of Atterberg limits with oil content

5.3. Effect of diesel contamination on unconfined compressive strength of

soil
The Figure 5 Shows the axial stress-strain curve for different % of oil content.
Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) decreases drastically with the increase in
diesel oil contamination in the soil. The diesel oil content leads to decrease in the soil
density and looses the soil particles, so it leads to the weakness of soil and decreases
the strength.
140

Axial stress (kN/m2 )

120
100
0% OIL

80

4% OIL
60

8% OIL

40

12% OIL

20

16% OIL

0
0

10

12

14

Axial strain (%)

Figure 5 Variation of axial stress strain curves of soil with different percentage of oil
content

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Effect of Diesel Contamination on Geotechnical Properties of Clay Near BPCL

Figure 6 shows the variation of UCS of soil with oil content. Unconfined
compressive strength decreases 75% with the increase in diesel oil contamination.
140
120

qu ( kN/m2)

100

80
60
40
20
0
0

10

12

14

16

18

Diesel oil content (%)

Figure 6 Variation of Unconfined compressive strength of soil with oil content.

6. CONCLUSION
The optimum moisture content and maximum dry unit weight decreased as the diesel
oil content in the soil increased. Addition of diesel oil to the soil resulted in an
increase in the liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index. Unconfined compressive
strength of soil decreases drastically with increase in diesel oil contamination. Use of
diesel contaminated soil without proper stabilisation or remediation can leads to
differential settlement.

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