International Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering Research ISSN 2348-7607 (Online) Vol. 2, Issue 2, pp: (113-117), Month: October 2014 - March 2015, Available at: www.researchpublish.com Page | 113 Research Publish Journals Study on Geotechnical Properties of Diesel Oil Contaminated Soil Dr.Solly George 1 , Aswathy EA 2 , Berlin Sabu 3 , Krishnaprabha NP 4 , Maria George 5 1 Professor , 2 3 4 5 Under Graduate students, 1,2,3,4,5 Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam, India Abstract: Soil contamination by engine oil causes huge damage to the environment. This basically takes place due to oil exploration, transportation, production and processing, leakage of diesel products from oil tankers, spills due to vehicular accidents, from buried pipelines etc. The hydrocarbons present in the oil influences the quality and physical properties of oil contaminated soil. These hydrocarbons infiltrate into the soil through pore spaces and collect at the top of the ground level. Some major tasks are needed to be performed for remediation and reclamation of contaminated area. For this knowledge of the geotechnical properties and behaviour of contaminated soils is required. This study aimed to investigate the geotechnical properties of engine oil- contaminated sandy soil. The amount of oil added to soil was varied at 0%, 4%, 8% and 12% of the dried weight of samples. Results showed that the oil contamination decreased the liquid limit, plastic limit. The MDD value was found to be decreasing whereas value of OMC was increasing as a result of increasing amount of oil added into the soil. This indicates that the addition of oil has adverse effects to the geotechnical properties of the studied soil. This affects the safety of civil engineering structures. The results from the study will be used for geotechnical purposes and will benefit engineers for the safe and economic construction of structures on contaminated land. Keywords: Soil contamination, Remediation, Reclamation, Geotechnical Properties. I. INTRODUCTION The Engine oil contamination of soil is very common in areas in the vicinity motor mechanic workshops. It has been reported that the engineering properties of such soil are drastically changed and made unsuitable for supporting engineering structures. At the sites with excessive oil contamination, vertical settlement of tanks, cracking of pipelines etc. are usually expected to occur. Not only highways, but garages, petrol stations, oil storage sites etc. are common sites contaminated with oil, especially engine oil. The extent of contamination has a lot to do with the chemical composition of contaminant and properties of the soil. For any application of these contaminated soil, knowledge of geotechnical properties and behaviour of contaminated soil. II. PROCEDURE A. Sample Collection: The soil sample was collected from the premises of Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam. B. Sample preparation: The diesel oil was used in this study. The degree of contamination is defined as percentage of volume of oil with respect to dry weight of soil. Each portion of soil for sampling was mixed thoroughly with diesel at different percentage of 0, 4, 8 and 12 to the dry weight of soil. The samples were kept in air tight container for one week to attain a stage of homogeneous mixture. These samples then were used to determine the engineering properties of soil. The tests were generally carried out on the soil samples in accordance with the procedure outlined by Indian standards.