Behaviour Of Calcarious Soil Subjected to Oil Derivatives

Abstract

Calcareous or salty soils are the soils which are containing highly dissolved sodium or calcium salts in natural conditions. The dissolution of salts increases with temperature, atmospheric pressure, in addition to the acidity of the dissolves solution. Calcareous soil is stiff and very hard if it is in a dry phase; it becomes collapsible and very week when wetted with water. It is very dangerous for structures when constructing on such soil especially when high stresses are applied on it. Oil tanks or pipes may damage from any reason, and the oil products may leak from these structures to the soil and infiltrate through soil skeleton and may cause leaching to CaCO3 salt particles in some regions in Iraq, as example the Baiji Oil Station or Al-Mosel Dam, CaCO3 percent reaches more than 40%.
This study shines the lights about the behavior of Calcareous soil subjected to three oil derivatives (kerosene oil, crude oil, gas oil and a sample wetted with water to make good comparison ,and study effect of addition of this products on the collapsibility.
A laboratory model included soil with 70% and 50% CaCO3 compacted to 11 kN/m3. Fix stress system was used which applies 50 kN/m2, the loading frame was manufactured in a way that keeping the weights over footing stable without tilting. Three oil derivatives (Kerosene, Gasoil and crude oil) were used for laboratory model tests; by wetting Calcareous soil with it. One sample was wetted with water for comparison; the settlement was recorded with soaking time at a constant stress level.
The results of laboratory model tests shows that the settlements results from specimens soaked with lubricating oil, Gasoil and Kerosene, are much less than the settlements that belong to soaking with water (reduce settlement to about one third) and considered high improvement of such problematic soil by wetting with oil derivatives.