Effects of Contamination with Gasoline and Diesel Oil on Shear Strength of Coarse Grained Soil

The paper presents research results into the influence of motor fuels on the shear strength of coarse-grained soil. The soil was classified following the unified soil classification system PN-EN ISO 14668-1 as saGr. The soil samples were artificially contaminated with three percentage ratios of motor fuels 5, 7.5 and 10% in relation to the dry mass of the soil skeleton. The test results have shown that motor fuel contamination significantly impacts the tested soil's mechanical properties. Increasing the content of impurities causes a significant decrease in shear strength parameters. For soil contaminated with 5%, 7.5% and 10% of motor fuel, i.e. gasoline or diesel, the angle of internal friction decreased by 8%, 15% and 20%, respectively. Along with the impurities increase, the soil's ultimate bearing capacity, calculated following EC-7, showed a dramatic decrease. The decrease was 40%, 57% and 66% respectively.