Laboratory Compaction of Oil Sand Samples
One source of petroleum is from oil sand, natural sand deposits with bitumen found around the world. Actually, Caterpillar, Inc. is operating their mining and construction equipment in the Saskatchewan region in Canada, a natural oil sand deposit, but they are presently faced with mobility problems and sinkage of their mining and construction equipment. In spring and especially in summer, soil gets soft and makes driving conditions treacherous. This research required the analysis of different oil sand type specimens: Aurora high grade (AU-14), Suncor Energy high grade (SE-14) and Suncor Energy low grade (SE-09) at 14 and 9 % bitumen contents. Using a gyratory compactor, specimens were compacted to determine the compaction properties and then, a triaxial test setup was used to conduct monotonic loading strength tests with small cylindrical specimens. As results, we obtained that the greater amount of bitumen in the sample gives lower number of gyrations and therefore smaller time is needed to compact specimens. Also, the sample with the highest strength and smaller displacement was the AU-14.
School:
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Department:
Civil Engineering
Research Advisor:
Erol Tutumluer
Department of Research Advisor:
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Year of Publication:
2006