Scribd
Upload
77 views

Permeability

This document discusses permeability and seepage in soils. It defines permeability as the soil's ability to allow water to flow through its pores or voids. Permeability is important for designing earth dams and retaining structures, as it affects stability. Darcy's law states that the velocity of water flowing through saturated soil is proportional to the hydraulic gradient and the soil's hydraulic conductivity. Hydraulic conductivity depends on factors like pore size, temperature, and grain size. It represents how easily water can flow through the soil. The constant head and falling head tests are commonly used to measure a soil's hydraulic conductivity in the laboratory.

Uploaded by

twinklecawas099
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
77 views

Permeability

This document discusses permeability and seepage in soils. It defines permeability as the soil's ability to allow water to flow through its pores or voids. Permeability is important for designing earth dams and retaining structures, as it affects stability. Darcy's law states that the velocity of water flowing through saturated soil is proportional to the hydraulic gradient and the soil's hydraulic conductivity. Hydraulic conductivity depends on factors like pore size, temperature, and grain size. It represents how easily water can flow through the soil. The constant head and falling head tests are commonly used to measure a soil's hydraulic conductivity in the laboratory.

Uploaded by

twinklecawas099
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 6

Learning Outcomes:

 Understand basic principles of flow and soil permeability through porous media including Bernoulli’s
equation, Darcy’s law, and hydraulic conductivity

 Understand seepage in soil

Permeability
Soils are permeable due to the existence of interconnected voids through which water can flow from points of
high energy to points of low energy. The study of the flow of water through permeable soil media is important
in soil mechanics. It is necessary for estimating the quantity of underground seepage under various hydraulic
conditions, for investigating problems involving the pumping of water for underground construction, and for
making stability analyses of earth dams and earth-retaining structures that are subject to seepage forces.

What is permeability?

– Permeability is the measure of the soil’s ability to permit water to flow through its pores or voids

Importance of Permeability

The following applications illustrate the importance of permeability in geotechnical design:

 The design of earth dam is very much based upon the permeability of the soils used.
 The stability of sopes and retaining structures can be greatly affected by the permeability of the soils
involved.
From fluid mechanics, we know that, according to Bernoulli’s equation, the total headt at a point in water
under motion can be given by the sum of the pressure, velocity, and elevation heads

Where: h = total head


u = pressure
v = velocity
g = acceleration due to gravity
𝛾𝑤 = unit weight of water

Note:
 Elevation head, Z is the vertical distance of a given point above or below a datum plane.
 Pressure head is the water pressure, u, at that point divided by the unit weight of water
In general, the variation of the velocity v with the hydraulic gradient i as shown in Figure 7.2.

1. Laminar flow zone (Zone I)


2. Transition zone (Zone II)
3. Turbulent flow zone (Zone III)

 In most soils, the flow of water trough the void spaces can be considered laminar; thus,

 In fractures rock, stones, gravels, and very coarse sands, turbulent flow conditions may exist, and
may not be valid.

– In 1856, Darcy published a simple equation for the discharge velocity of water through saturated soils,
which may be expressed as

Where:
v = dischgarge velocity, which is the quantity of water flowing in unit time through a unit gross-
sectional area of soil at right angles to the direction of flow
k = hydraulic conductivity (otherwise known as the coefficient of permeability)
i = hydraulic gradient = h/L

 Then the quantity of water flowing through the soil per unit time is

𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 = 𝑄 = 𝑣. 𝐴 = 𝑘(ℎ⁄𝐿 ) ∗ 𝐴
To determine the quantity of flow, two parameters are needed

o 𝑘 = ℎ𝑦𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 (ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑖𝑙 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚 )


o 𝑖 = ℎ𝑦𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 (ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 )

k can be determined using


1. Laboratory Testing (constant head test and falling head test)
2. Fiels Testing (pumping from wells)
3. Empirical equations

i can be determined
1. From the head loss and geometry
2. Flow net

Hydraulic Conductivity
– The hydraulic conductivity is a measure of how easy the water can flow through the soil.
– The hydraulic conductivity is expressed in the units of velocity (cm/sec and m/sec)

 Hydraulic conductivity of soils depends on several factors

o Fluid viscosity (ƞ)


o Pore size distribution
o Temperature
o Grain size distribution
o Degree of soil saturation
 It is conventional to express the value of k at a a temperature of 20 ℃

 Two standard laboratory tests are used to determine the hydraulic conductivity of soil

1. The constant-head test


2. The falling-head test

 Constant head test

– Used primarily for coarse-grained soils


– This test is based on the assumption of laminar flow (Darcy’s law apply)

Source: Principles of Geotechnical Engineering 7th edition by Braja M. Das

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy