Estimation of oil-contaminated soils’ mechanical characteristics using electrical resistivity

Abstract

The shear characteristics of typical petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soils are investigated by electrical detection in this paper. Kerosene was used and the concentrations are at selected level of 0, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10% (weight ratio) respectively. Direct shear tests were used to investigate the influence of kerosene on shear characters of soil samples. It is found that with the addition of kerosene, shear strength, cohesion, and friction angle of contaminated soils are smaller than uncontaminated samples. The higher concentration of kerosene penetrated in soils, the smaller of these characteristics of contaminated soils were observed. In addition, electrical resistivity with the same status of strength tests were measured. Results show that there is an increasing tendency of resistivity with the increase of kerosene concentrations in soils. It is found that, under fixed compactness and saturation, shear strength of oil-contaminated soils decreased with the increase of resistivity, indicating that the resistivity can be used to evaluate the shear characteristics of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soils.