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Shear strength of a silt at various oil/water contents

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Abstract

It is important to understand the shear behavior of oil-contaminated soils in many geotechnical problems, such as the analysis of pipelines and storage tanks affected by oil leakage. In this study, the shear behavior of a silt permeated with silicone oil/water (denoted by OS and WS, respectively) was investigated through direct shear tests. The residual shear strength was measured at various degrees of liquid saturation (65–100%) and net normal stresses (50 to 400 kPa). The oil and water retention curves were measured and used to explain the shear behavior. The results show that the residual friction angle of OS is 30% larger than that of WS. This is likely because OS and WS show aggregated and matrix structures, respectively, as evidenced by the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) test. The former structure includes more particle contacts than the latter one. These structural differences can be attributed to varying fluid properties, such as wettability, viscosity, and dielectric constant. When the volumetric degree of water saturation decreases, the total cohesion of WS increases substantially because of the strengthening effects of air-water interfaces on the soil skeleton. In contrast, the degree of oil saturation has minuscule effects on these variables, mainly because OS has a low oil retention ability and the air-oil suction remains very low (i.e., less than 2 kPa) during the desaturation process.

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Data availability

Some or all data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

α, n, m :

Soil parameters in the VG model (van Genuchten 1980)

β :

Scaling factor that equals the ratio of interfacial tensions

c brine :

Concentration of NaCl brine (g/g)

c t :

Total cohesion

G ker :

The ratio of the unit weight of kerosene to that of water

LL DW :

Liquid limit of soil with deionized water

LL brine :

Liquid limit of soil with 2-M NaCl brine

LL ker :

Liquid limit of soil with kerosene

S l S r :

Volumetric degree of liquid saturation

S o :

Volumetric degree of oil saturation

S w :

Volumetric degree of water saturation

s :

Matric suction

s aw :

Suction produced by the air-water interface

s ao :

Suction produced by the air-oil interface

T al :

Interfacial tensions of air-scaled liquid

T aw :

Interfacial tensions of air-water

T ao :

Interfacial tensions of air-oil

u a :

Pore air pressure

u o :

Oil pressure

u w :

Water pressure

σ :

Total normal stress

σ- u a :

Net normal stress

τ f :

Shear strength of soil

φ′ :

Effective friction angle

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Acknowledgements

 The authors would like to thank the National Science Foundation of China (52022004 and 52279109) and the Technology Innovation Center for Land Engineering and Human Settlements, Shaanxi Land Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd and Xi’an Jiaotong University (201912131-A1).

Funding

This work is supported by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of the HKSAR through the research grant 16204817.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Jiaren Yu, Chao Zhou & Qingyi Mu

  2. School of Geological Engineering and Geomatics, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Qingyi Mu

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  1. Jiaren Yu
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Correspondence to Qingyi Mu.

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Yu, J., Zhou, C. & Mu, Q. Shear strength of a silt at various oil/water contents. Bull Eng Geol Environ 83, 92 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-024-03578-0

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