Impact of gasoline contamination on mechanical behavior of sandy clay soil

Oil leakage causes soil contamination and induces changes in the physical and mechanical properties of soils. In areas contaminated with oil products such as gasoline, the implementation of civilian operations requires determination and prediction of soil behavior in the existing conditions. In this research work, the effect of oil contamination by gasoline obtained from the National Oil Company in the Yazd Province is considered to investigate the effect of contaminants on the geotechnical properties of fine-grained sand. In order to examine the geotechnical characteristics of contaminated soil, compaction, undrained triaxial (CU), and consolidation tests are conducted. The tests are carried out on the samples of clean soil and contaminated soil with 1, 3, and 5% gasoline. The results obtained show that added gasoline reduces the optimum moisture content and increases the maximum dry density. In addition, based on the results of the triaxial test, the amount of friction angle and the cohesion of clay sand decrease by 21% and 14% with increasing contamination up to 5%, respectively, compared to the clean soil sample. Furthermore, adding gasoline significantly increases the compressibility and compression index.