Influence of diesel pollution on the physical properties of soils

Abstract

Physical properties of contaminated soils are different from uncontaminated ones, it is necessary to detect whether the site was contaminated before construction. How to quickly, precisely judge whether the soil was contaminated is a problem need to research, soil electrical resistivity can be used as an index to evaluate whether the soil was contaminated. Diesel oil contaminated soil as a common contaminated soil gained more and more attention. This paper choose the classical Yangtze River back swamp soil as study material, 0# diesel oil (in Chinese national standard) as contaminant, mixed soil samples with water content of 7%, 10%, 13%, 16%, 20% and 25%, every water content inject diesel oil content of 4%, 8%, 12% (water and oil content all calculated in weight). The prepared contaminated soils were placed in standard curing room for 14 days, 28 days, 56 days. At every curing time, soil particle size distribution, pH were measured according to different standards. Atterberg limits, electrical resistivity of the contaminated soils was measured at 14 days curing time. Resistivity was measured by the devices designed according to Miller Soil Box, using alternating current (AC) as input power. Soil resistivity was measured at different water content, density and degree of saturation. Results show that diesel contamination can decrease soil particle size and soil pH, can decrease soil liquid limit and liquid limit, and can increase soil resistivity. Resistivity of contaminated soil decrease in power function with the increase of water content, density and degree of saturation. These results would be a help in the future work when use soil index to judge whether the soil was contaminated.