Effect of initial soil water content on crude oil infiltration into soils

To investigate the effect of initial soil water content on crude oil infiltration in soil, the crude oil infiltration experiments in three types of soils under different soil water content was conducted. The change of different soil water content in response to the change of infiltration was studied. Results indicated that the crude oil advance distance and the rate of advance increased with increasing of initial soil water content for a given soil type. When the initial soil water content was low, the content of silt would decelerate the crude oil infiltration process. The amount of residues left in the soils decreased with fluctuation while the soil depth increased. The relationships between the advance distances and infiltration time can be well described by a logarithmic function, while the rate of advance can be well fitted by Kostiakov function. The study provided some information for the remediation of contaminated soil.