Midhun, Peter Mathew (2017) Comparative study on the behavior of reinforced concrete beams with and without oil contamination. Coursework Masters thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The world’s dependence on the petroleum products shows an increasing trend on a day-to-day basis. Accidents and leakage due to oil spills, leakage from pipes or during transportation is causing environmental issues specially when mixed with soil. The soil when mixed with oil start losing their properties. It will be economically viable, if we can regenerate the oil contaminated soil back to its normal properties and use them for construction. This research project aimed at investigating the physical and mechanical properties of beams with light crude oil contaminated sand. It focused on evaluating the effects of the addition of 6% of light crude oil on the behaviour of beams and compared it with uncontaminated beam. In order to achieve the project objectives, the following experimental programmes were implemented:
• Characterisation of the physical and mechanical properties of concrete using sand with 6% oil contamination
• Evaluation of the flexural behaviour of beams with and without crude oil contamination.
• Theoretical analysis and comparison with experimental results
For the purpose of the experiment, two beams were casted, beam 1 without oil contamination which is the control beam and beam 2 with oil contamination. The beams were subjected to flexural test under three-point loading in the SANS machine. A comparative study on the experimental results with theoretical values were also conducted. The results of the experimental investigation the flexural strength decreased when 6% of crude oil was used by 22% compared to uncontaminated samples. Furthermore, the results revealed that the beam with oil contamination showed low compression strength. The ultimate bearing capacity of the beam with oil contamination was 20% less than that of the beam without any contamination. While the initial cracking load was 33% lower when compared to uncontaminated beam. The presence of oil has affected the bond strength between concrete and steel. The theoretical analysis to estimate the initial cracking moment and the ultimate moment values of beams with and without crude oil gave a 93% accuracy between the experimental results and the predicted values.
The reduction of the strength could be enhanced by adding fibres into the mix. The appropriate forms of the fibres and the optimal dosage, which will result in properties equal or higher than for uncontaminated samples, need to be determined. Hence, a further research investigation in this area is strongly recommended.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Coursework Masters) |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address. |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - No Department (1 Jul 2013 -) |
| Supervisors: | Manalo, Allan; Abousnina, Rajab |
| Qualification: | Master of Engineering Sciences (CIVIL) |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Jul 2026 00:18 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Jul 2026 00:18 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | petroleum products, spills, leakage, nvironmental issues, contaminated soil, contaminated sand |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/53248 |
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