Geotechnical properties of hydrocarbon-contaminated soils: a comprehensive review

The geotechnical characteristics of hydrocarbon-contaminated soils have been concentrated heretofore due to the alarming frequency of hydrocarbon contaminations and their significant consequences. Over the past three decades, numerous research studies have been conducted in order to investigate hydrocarbon-induced changes in geotechnical properties of soils. The present article is aimed at extensively reviewing almost all relevant academic literature on this subject, and, due to various kinds of soils and hydrocarbon compounds, it tries to provide a brief summary of each research study along with its key findings. By this review, it was revealed that geotechnical characteristics of soils, such as particle size distribution, Atterberg limits, permeability, optimum moisture content, maximum dry density, compression index, coefficient of consolidation, over-consolidation ratio, cohesion, angle of internal friction, unconfined compression strength, shear strength, and so on, can be remarkably influenced by hydrocarbon contaminations. However, the amount of these hydrocarbon-induced changes were highly dependent on various factors, including soil and hydrocarbon properties, environmental and operation conditions, weathering process, etc., so that, for each specific geotechnical property, various alterations were reported in scientific literature.