Civil Engineering and Architecture 6(4): 205-211, 2018 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/cea.2018.060403 Effects of Crude Oil Imparted Sand on the Durability of Concrete Ajagbe W. O * , Rabiu W. A Civil Engineering Department, University of Ibadan, Nigeria Copyright©2018 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract A large percentage of soils in crude oil producing areas in Nigeria were contaminated to a varying degree. Past research showed reduction in the compressive strength of concrete made with crude oil impacted sand (COIS). The current effort aimed at assessing the durability of COIS concrete. Soil samples were contaminated with crude oil concentrated levels of 0, 2.5%, 5%, 10% and 15% by weight of sand to produce COIS. Concrete design mix of 1:1.8:2.7 were made with COIS at the different concentrations from which concrete specimen – 100 mm cubes; 100 x 200 mm, and 75 x 150 mm cylinders, were made. COIS concrete were then tested for chloride and sulphate resistance using Electrical Resistivity(ER) test on 100mm x 200mm concrete cylinders and Water absorption (WA) test on 75 x 150 mm cylinders, respectively The COIS concrete was tested for Fire Resistance(FR) by testing the compressive strengths of heated 100 mm cubes. The results showed that COIS concrete exhibited an increased in durability properties as the contamination level increases. The control sample has the lowest value of ER of 119 kohm-cm which indicates low resistance to chloride ion penetration. It also has the highest value of WA of 3.9% indicating low resistance to sulphate attack. However, COIS concrete experienced reduction in strength when exposed to fire as the concentration of crude oil increases. The better durability property of the COIS concrete compliments the strength reduction. Keywords Concrete Durability, Compressive Strength, Crude Oil, Contaminated Soil 1. Introduction According to Blaszezynski[4],durability of cement concrete can be defined as its ability to resist weathering action, both physical and chemical attack i.e. resistance to corrosion, scaling, deleterious expansion, Sulphate and Chloride attack, abrasion and other deterioration processes to which concrete may be exposed. A durable concrete is one that performs satisfactorily under anticipated exposure (working) condition during its life span (Nehdi, Pardhan[9]). Fire resistance of concrete is considered as part of its advantages over steel as construction materials. Having concrete with crude oil is susceptible to enhance the heating effect on reinforced concrete by introducing high temperature gradients and as a result of it, the surface layers tend to separate and spall off from the cooler interior (Potha.Raju[10]). The heating of reinforcement aggravates the expansion both laterally and longitudinally of the reinforcement bars resulting in loss of bond and loss of strength of reinforcement. According to BaiJ, Potha, Raju[3,10] research works have indicated that fire resistance of concrete is highly dependent on its constituent materials. Hence with COIS, the concrete contains crude oil which is a flammable liquid such that when in contact with fire, the concrete is subjected to higher heat intensity thus reducing its durability. Over the past two decades, the amount of hydrocarbon contamination of soil and the environment has continually increased, and presently it constitutes a significant fraction of waste materials in the environment. Some major sources of hydrocarbon contamination are oil spill, leaking of petroleum from underground storage tanks, oil pipe vandalization, drilling, treatment activities for exploration and production of hydrocarbons, and hydrocarbon waste disposed from industries (Ajagbe et al[18]). Also, inadequate care on oil production operation and transportation which centered on Niger-Delta region has been mired by various degrees of environmental pollution problems including contaminated sand (Ukoli[11]). Concrete materials contamination in the Niger/Delta region of Nigeria is caused by oil spills due to a number of reasons, including; corrosion of pipelines and tankers (accounting for 50% of all spills), sabotage (28%), and oil production operations (21%), with 1% of spills being accounted for by inadequate or non-functional production equipment. The largest contributor to the oil spills, total CITE THIS PAPER [1] Ajagbe W. O , Rabiu W. A , "Effects of Crude Oil Imparted Sand on the Durability of Concrete," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 205 - 211, 2018. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2018.060403.