Papers by Dorota Izdebska-Mucha
Biuletyn Państwowego Instytutu Geologicznego, 2016
Przegląd Geologiczny, 2021
The effect of diesel fuel contamination on the particle size distribution and plasticity of muds ... more The effect of diesel fuel contamination on the particle size distribution and plasticity of muds from the area of Warsaw-Siekierki.
Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 2021
The article presents the results of qualitative and quantitative microstructural analysis, and th... more The article presents the results of qualitative and quantitative microstructural analysis, and the basic properties of clay soils subjected to long-term contamination by liquid petroleum fuels (LPF). Comparative study of undisturbed, contaminated in situ clay soil (CS) and reference uncontaminated soil (US) was performed. Soil contamination by these compounds causes transformation of microstructure and changes of geotechnical parameters. Microstructure is a key factor in the interpretation of soil properties. Microstructural analyses were performed with application of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and STIMAN software. It was estimated that contaminated soil is characterised by lower moisture content, plasticity, pH and zeta potential, and by higher bulk density and consistency index. Due to hydrocarbon contamination, soil microstructure changed from highly anisotropic mixed laminar-turbulent into uniform matrix type. Comparative quantitative analysis of the microstructure indicated redistribution of the pore space expressed by changes in porosity, pore number and shape, decrease of microporosity, and increase of elongated mesopores number.
Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 2017
This paper deals with the prediction of free heave in expansive soils from central Poland. Thirty... more This paper deals with the prediction of free heave in expansive soils from central Poland. Thirty-nine soil samples differing in plasticity were selected for a comparative analysis. The soil types examined – Neogene clays, alluvial soils, and glacial tills – differ in CLOD index (Cw) values, which range from 0.027 to 0.019, with values for undisturbed samples being higher than those for the remoulded ones. The variability of the Cw index correlates best with the sand-to-clay ratio. Studies of soils contaminated with diesel oil (ON) have revealed that the Cw index decreases with growing ON content. Calculations of the potential heave, assuming a 1% moisture change for a 1 m thick soil layer, show the heave to be 18 to 12 mm and 15 to 11 mm for Neogene clays and glacial tills, respectively, depending on the in situ void ratio. Petroleum contamination significantly reduces the potential heave of the soil. The present analysis clearly suggests that glacial tills are more susceptible to ...
Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 2021
The objectives of this paper are to provide a regional description of the shrinkage parameters of... more The objectives of this paper are to provide a regional description of the shrinkage parameters of Neogene clays and glacial tills from central Poland; and to present the effects of hydrocarbon contamination on the shrinkage behaviour of soils. Forty samples containing from 19 to 90% clay-size particles were tested. The comparison of the three methods applied has indicated that the shrinkage limit values obtained by the BS 1377-2 method provide a greater margin of safety when used in the classification of expansive soils and yield the best match in the analysis of the variability of the shrinkage limit in relation to other soil index parameters. A good correlation was found between the shrinkability index and the consistency index, which leads to a new classification of soils. The shrinkage tests of clean and diesel oil-contaminated samples revealed that contamination has a significant and irregular effect on the values of shrinkage parameters. For a low degree of contamination the s...
Biuletyn Państwowego Instytutu Geologicznego, 2016
The paper presents the results of free swell measurements of Neogene clays and model clay mixture... more The paper presents the results of free swell measurements of Neogene clays and model clay mixtures composed of Wyoming bentonite and Sedlec kaolinite. Modified free swell index (MFSI) as well as free swell ratio (FSR) were determined and analyzed with respect to pore fluid chemistry, mineral composition and clay content. The FSR, defined as the ratio of the equilibrium sediment volume of 10-g oven dried soil in 0.0025% NaCl solution to that in kerosene, has proved to provide only a rough prediction of clay mineralogy in natural soils.
Inzynieria I Ochrona Środowiska, 2006
Geological Quarterly, Mar 27, 2010
Izdebska-Mucha D. (2008)-Pore space stud ies on Wartanian gla cial till (Cen tral Po land) pol lu... more Izdebska-Mucha D. (2008)-Pore space stud ies on Wartanian gla cial till (Cen tral Po land) pol luted with petrol and die sel oil, based on mer cury porosimetry. Geol. Quart., 52 (2): 183-190. Warszawa. Air-dried sam ples of gla cial till were pol luted in the lab o ra tory with petrol and die sel oil. A com par a tive anal y sis of nat u ral and con tam inated ma te rial was made on the ba sis of mer cury porosimetry mea sure ments. The in ves ti ga tion re vealed rel a tively slight changes in the pore space of the pol luted sam ples, which were as so ci ated with ad sorp tion of hy dro car bons onto the soil par ti cles rather than with microstructural change. In tro duc tion of non-po lar or ganic fluid into soil pores did not cause re ar range ment of the nat u ral soil struc ture. Due to the ini tial air-dried state of the soil ma te rial, these find ings per tain to un sat u rated soils only. These re sults con trib ute to the cru cial, but still poorly rec og nized prob lem of the en gi neer ing geology prop er ties of or ganic con tam i nated soils.
Geological Quarterly, 2015
This pa per pres ents the char ac ter is tics of the expansivity and quan ti ta tive pre dic tion... more This pa per pres ents the char ac ter is tics of the expansivity and quan ti ta tive pre dic tion of heave of clay soils from Po land based on suc tion test ing. Eleven Neo gene clays and six gla cial tills, dif fer ing in gen e sis and plas tic ity, were ana lysed to identify the ex pan sive po ten tial us ing eight em pir i cal meth ods. The lab o ra tory stud ies in cluded mea sure ments of soil-wa ter charac ter is tic curves and soil in dex prop er ties. Data from wa ter con tent, vol ume and suc tion mea sure ments served to de ter mine the suc tion com pres sion in dex C h and the suc tion-wa ter con tent in dex Dh/Dw of the soils ex am ined. The val ues of these in dices are clearly de pend ent on the clay frac tion con tent in tested soils. Com pared with gla cial tills, Neo gene clays are expected to ex hibit greater changes in vol ume due to changes in soil suc tion. Com par a tive re sults of the eval u a tion of expansivity sug gest that the cho sen clas si fi ca tion meth od ol o gies pro vided con sis tent ex pan sion rat ings for gla cial tills, while the val ues for Neo gene clays vary from low to very high. The low est expansivity classes have been ob tained from eval u a tion based on soil suc tion. The McKeen (1992) method has been adopted for cal cu la tions of the po ten tial field heave of Neo gene clays and gla cial tills. In or der to pro vide a ra tio nal es ti ma tion of ex pan sive soil be hav iour, spe cial ists should take into con sider ation the spe cific site and de sign fea tures.
Geological Quarterly
The revision of classification methodologies for determination of soil expansivity revealed that ... more The revision of classification methodologies for determination of soil expansivity revealed that parameters most frequently used for this purpose are: the liquid limit, plasticity index and swelling parameters which also predominate in older systems of expansive soil assessment, regarded as classical. Seventy-nine soil samples, including Neogene clays and glaciall tills from central Poland, with a wide range of plasticity were examined for a comparative analysis of soil expansivity with a use of eight empirical methods. The study revealed that Neogene clays are mostly highly and very highly expansive, while glacial tills exhibit low to medium expansivity. Compared to classifications considering soil mineralogy indicators, those correlated solely to Atterberg limits and related parameters were found to overestimate soil expansivity. It is evident that the classifications are in better agreement for glacial tills than for clays. The comparison of mineral composition measured and predi...
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2014
The state of preservation of waterlogged archaeological wood was evaluated on the basis of the ma... more The state of preservation of waterlogged archaeological wood was evaluated on the basis of the maximum moisture content (MMC), the basic density (BD) and the wood substance density (WSD) determined in water and helium. The degree of wood degradation was compared under the criteria: the loss of wood substance (LWS) and the loss of wood substance density (LWSD). Studies were conducted on the wood samples differing in species, degree of degradation, age and place of origin. The physical properties of wood were determined for the material containing mineral compounds and the material without minerals. The properties of the latter, in which the minerals are replaced by water, were calculated from the mass and volume of the wood containing minerals as well as the content and density of the ash obtained after burning the sample. The study revealed the effect of minerals on the tested parameters and wood degradation indices. A strong relationship between BD and MMC was confirmed for both the wood containing minerals and without them, by contrast a substantially weaker correlation between BD and WSD was observed. It was found that the assessment of the state of wood preservation conducted on the basis of LWS and LWSD yielded different results. In addition, it was revealed that both indices of wood degradation might be unreliable. The main drawback of the LWS-based assessment is associated with a wide range of basic density of fresh wood. In turn, the LWSD mainly indicates the changing ratio of the carbohydrates/lignin content, but fails to provide information on the loss of wood substance. This may hinder the comparison of the wood sampled from different sites and subjected to different decay mechanisms. Nevertheless, the WSD-based assessment of the state of preservation of waterlogged archaeological wood might be a valuable complementary method to the BD-and/or MMC-based assessment, which is routinely carried out in many conservation centers.
Clay Minerals, 2011
Microstructural (fabric, forces and composition) changes due to hydrocarbon contamination in a cl... more Microstructural (fabric, forces and composition) changes due to hydrocarbon contamination in a clayey soil (glacial till) were studied using scanning electron microscopy (microfabric analysis), atomic force microscopy (force measurement) and a sedimentation bench test (particle size measurements). Non-polluted and polluted glacial till from NE Poland (in the area of a fuel terminal) were used for the study. Electrostatic repulsive forces in the polluted samples were much lower than in non-polluted samples. In comparison with non-polluted samples, the polluted samples exhibited lower electric charge, attractive forces on approach and strong adhesion on withdrawal. The results of the sedimentation tests indicate that clay particles form larger aggregates and settle out of the suspension rapidly in diesel oil. In non-polluted soil, the fabric is strongly aggregated – dense packing, dominating face-to-face and edge-to-edge types of contacts, clay film tightly adhering to the surface of ...
Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 2013
The paper presents a study on the shrinkage properties of three clay soils from Poland. Shrinkage... more The paper presents a study on the shrinkage properties of three clay soils from Poland. Shrinkage limit, volumetric shrinkage and relative volumetric shrinkage were determined, tested according to PN-88/B-04481 (1988) and BS1377: Part 2 (1990) and correlated with the index properties of soils. The shrinkage limit was also calculated from Krabbe's (1958) equation. The results showed that shrinkage limit values obtained by the BS method are lower than those obtained using the PN method, but the values calculated from Krabbe's equation differ significantly. While no strong correlation was found between shrinkage limit and index soil parameters, linear relationships were obtained between volumetric shrinkage and initial moisture content, shrinkage range, plasticity index and clay content. Following multivariable regression analysis, the relative volumetric shrinkage was expressed as a function of plasticity index and moisture content. This function can be used to predict volumetric changes of the foundations based on the moisture content and material properties of the soil.
Uploads
Papers by Dorota Izdebska-Mucha