Hydraulic Conductivity

Soils have 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 porous 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. The
discharge velocity of water, which is the quantity of water flowing in unit
time through a unit gross cross-sectional area of the soil (at right angles to
the direction of flow) is a function of hydraulic conductivity and hydraulic
gradient. The hydraulic conductivity is an important parameter for a soil in
the study of seepage. In this chapter, we will discuss the procedures for
determining hydraulic conductivity of soils in the laboratory and in the field.
 Bernoulli’s Equation

From fluid mechanics we know that, according to Bernoulli’s equation, the total
head, h, at a point in water under motion can be given by the sum of the
pressure, velocity, and elevation heads, or
If Bernoulli’s equation is applied to the flow of water through a porous soil
medium, the term containing the velocity head can be neglected
because the seepage velocity is small. Then the total head at any point
can be adequately represented by
The total head loss, ∆h, can be expressed in a non-dimensional form as
 Darcy’s Law
In 1856, Henri Philibert Gaspard Darcy published a simple empirical equation for the
discharge velocity of water through saturated soils. This equation was based
primarily on Darcy’s observations about the flow of water through clean sands and
is given as
q = the quantity of water flowing through the soil in unit time

vs = seepage velocity
Av = area of void in the cross section of the specimen
 Hydraulic Conductivity

Hydraulic conductivity, symbolically represented as K, is a property of porous

materials, soils and rocks, that describes the ease with which a fluid can move
through the pore space, or fractures network in cm/s or m/s in SI units.

The absolute permeability K is expressed in units of L2 (that is, cm2, m2, and so
forth).
 Laboratory Determination of Hydraulic Conductivity
Two standard laboratory tests are used to determine the hydraulic conductivity
of soil: the constant head test and the falling head test. The constant head test is
used primarily for coarse-grained soils. For fine-grained soils, however, the flow
rates through the soil are too small and, therefore, falling head tests are
preferred.

Constant Head Test

Q = the total volume of water collected

A = area of cross section of the soil specimen
t = duration of water collection
L = length of the specimen
Falling Head Test

q = the rate of flow of the water through the

specimen at any time t.
a = cross-sectional area of the standpipe
A = cross-sectional area of the soil specimen

Rearranging Eq.

Integrating
Example 1

Example 2
Example 3

Example 4