Geotechnical Engineering-1

Course Code –CE-221

Credit Hours -3+1

Contact Hours -3+3

Dr Hassan Mujtaba

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 Permeability
• A measure of how easily a fluid (e.g., water) can pass
through a porous medium (e.g., soils)

water

Dense soil
Loose soil
- difficult to flow
- easy to flow
- low permeability
- high permeability
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 Permeability
• Soil is a particulate material. The voids in a soil mass
are interconnected, under saturated conditions are
filled with water and allow water to pass through
(seep) when subjected to differential head.
• No soil is absolutely impermeable but some of them
are relatively impervious while others are pervious.
• A soil is said to be pervious when it offers the
minimum possible resistance to the flow of water. For
examples, all clean, coarse-grained soils (gravels,
sands and gravel-sand mixtures) are pervious
materials.
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 Permeability
• These soils possess very good drainage conditions
and have permeability in the range of > 10-2 to 10-5
m/sec.
• On the other hand, soils which offers the maximum
resistance to the flow of water are called impervious
(e.g. silts, clays and their mixtures). The impervious
soils have permeability < 10-8 m/sec.

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 Why to measure Permeability
Soil are permeable due to existence of interconnected
voids through which water can flow from point of
high energy to point of low energy. The knowledge
of permeability is essential for most geotechnical
engineering problems dealing with flowing water
and/or coming in contact with water.
• Analysis of stability of foundations and foundation
excavations coming in contact with flowing water
and/or ground water.
• Analysis of seepage through dams or embankments
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 Why to measure Permeability
• Design of drainage systems
• Water lowering
• Estimation of wells yield and design of tube wells
• Design of relief wells, pervious blanket etc.
• Rate of consolidation and related settlement.
• Investigating problems involving pumping of
water for underground construction
• Seepage velocity through the soil mass which
may create erosion (piping effects) via
transportation of fine grained particles. 6
 Laminar and Turbulent Flow
• Laminar Flow- in laminar flow, each fluid particle
travelling along a definite path which never crosses the
path of any other particles
• Turbulent Flow- the path of fluid particles are irregular
and twisting, crossing and re-crossing at random.
• In most of the practical flow problems in soil engineering,
the flow is laminar.
• Hydraulic gradient or hydraulic grade is the line joining
the pressure head in the beginning (top of water level at
inlet) to with the pressure head at the end (end of pipe). In
an open channel, hydraulic grade line is water surface
level.
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 Bernoulli’s Equation
The energy of a fluid particle is made of:

1. Kinetic energy fluid particle

- due to velocity

z
2. Strain energy
- due to pressure

datum
3. Potential energy
- due to elevation (z) with respect to a datum

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 Bernoulli’s Equation
• Expressing in units of length
Velocity head
+
fluid particle

Total head =
Pressure head
+ z

Elevation head
datum
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 Bernoulli’s Equation
For flow through soils, velocity (and thus
velocity head) is very small. Therefore,
0
fluid particle
Velocity head
+
z

Total head Pressure head

= + datum

Elevation head
Total head = Pressure head + Elevation head
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 Hydraulic Gradient
• If flow is from A to B, total head is higher at A than
at B.
• Energy is dissipated in overcoming the soil resistance
and hence is the head loss.
At any point within the flow regime:
• Pressure head = pore water pressure/w
water
• Elevation head =
height above the selected datum B
A

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 Hydraulic Gradient
• Hydraulic gradient (i) between A and B is the total
head loss per unit length

TH A  TH B
i
l AB
water

B
A
length AB, along the stream line

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 Hydraulic Gradient
• When water flows through a saturated soil mass there
is certain resistance for the flow because of the
presence of solid matter. However, the laws of fluid
mechanics which are applicable for the flow of fluids
through pipes are also applicable to flow of water
through soils. As per Bernoulli's equation, the total
head at any point in water under steady flow
condition may be expressed as
Total head = pressure head + velocity head +
elevation head
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 Hydraulic Gradient
• This principle can be understood with regards to the
flow of water through a sample of soil of length L
and cross-sectional area A as shown in Fig.
• The heads of water at points A and B as the water
flows from A to B are given as follows (with respect
to a datum)

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Hydraulic Gradient

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 Hydraulic Gradient
• As the water flows from A to B, there is an energy
loss which is represented by the difference in the total
heads HA and HB

• Where, pA and pB = pressure heads, VA and VB =

velocity, g = acceleration due to gravity, γw = unit
weight of water, h = loss of head.

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 Hydraulic Gradient
• For all practical purposes, the velocity head is a small
quantity and may be neglected. The loss of head of h
units is affected as the water flows from A to B. The
loss of head per unit length of flow may be expressed
as

• Where i is called the hydraulic gradient

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 Hydraulic Gradient
• In general, the variation of the velocity with the
hydraulic gradient is shown in the figure. The figure
is divided into three zones
– Laminar flow zone (ZONE I)
– Transition zone (ZONE II)
– Turbulent flow zone (ZONE III)

• When the hydraulic gradient is gradually

increased, the flow remains laminar in Zone I
and zone II, the velocity bears a linear
relationship to hydraulic gradient.
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Hydraulic Gradient

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 Hydraulic Gradient
• At a higher hydraulic gradient, the flow
becomes turbulent (Zone III) .
• When hydraulic gradient is decreased, laminar
flow condition exists only in Zone I.

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 Darcy’s Law
• Velocity (v) of flow is proportional to the hydraulic
gradient (i) – Darcy (1856)

v=ki
• Where k is permeability or hydraulic conductivity
• Units of permeability is term of velocity (cm/sec).

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 Large Earth Dam
crest
free board filter

CORE
SHELL
SHELL

blanket

FOUNDATION
cutoff FOUNDATION
cutoff

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 Permeability Values (cm/s)

10-6 10-3 100

clays silts sands gravels

Fines Coarse

For coarse grain soils, k = f(e or D10)

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 Discharge and Seepage Velocity
• Figure shows the sample of length L and cross
sectional area A. The sample is placed in a cylindrical
horizontal tube between screen. The tube is connected
to two reservoirs, R1 and R2 in which water levels are
maintained constant. The difference in head between
R1 and R2 is h. This difference is responsible for the
flow of water.
• Since Darcy’s law assumes no change in the volume
of voids and soil is saturated, the quantity of flow
through sections AA, BB and CC should remain the
same for steady flow condition.
qaa=qbb=qcc 24
Discharge and Seepage Velocity

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 Discharge and Seepage Velocity
• If the soil be represented as divided into solid matter
and void space, then the area available for the passage
of water is only Av. If vs is the velocity of flow
(seepage velocity) in the voids, v the average velocity
across the section then for flow i.e q=Av
v 1 e
Av v s  Av vs   ( )v
n e
A
vs  v
Av
A 1 1 e
 
Av n e 26
 Discharge and Seepage Velocity
• v is the discharge velocity of water based on gross
cross-sectional area of the soil.
• vs is the seepage velocity of water through the void
space and is more than discharge velocity.

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 Factors affecting Permeability

• Size of the soil grains

• Properties of the pore fluid
• Void ratio of the soil
• Shape & arrangement of the pores
• Degree of saturation.

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 Factors affecting Permeability
Size of Soil Grains
• Coefficient of permeability of a soil is proportional to
the square of the particle size (D). The permeability
of coarse-grained soils is very large as compared to
that of fine- grained soils. The permeability of coarse
sand may be more than one million times as much
that of clay.
k = CD102

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 Factors affecting Permeability
Structure of Soil mass
• The size of the flow passage depends upon the structural
arrangement. For the same void ratio, the permeability is
more in the case of flocculated structure as compared to
that in the dispersed structure.
• Stratified soil deposits have greater permeability parallel
to the plane of stratification than that perpendicular to this
plane.
• Generally horizontal permeability is greater than vertical
permeability
kH ≥ kV (kH = 10kV)
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 Factors affecting Permeability
Shape of Soil Grains
• The permeability of a soil depends upon the shape of
particles. In a natural deposit, the void ratio for a soil
with angular particles may be greater than that for
rounded particles, and the soil with angular particles
may be actually more permeable.
Void Ratio
• For a given soil, the greater the void ratio, the higher
is the value of the coefficient of permeability.

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 Factors affecting Permeability
Properties of water
• Coefficient of permeability increases with an increase
in temperature due to reduction the viscosity.
Degree of Saturation
• If the soil is not fully saturated, it contains air
pockets, the permeability is reduced due to presence
of air which causes blockage of passage.
Consequently, the permeability of a partially
saturated soil is considerably smaller than that of a
fully saturated soil.
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 Factors affecting Permeability
Adsorbed water
• The fine-grained soils have a layer of adsorbed water
strongly attached to their surface. This adsorbed
water layer is not free to move under gravity. It
causes an obstruction to flow of water in the pores
and hence reduces the permeability of soils.
Impurities in water
• Any foreign matter in water has a tendency to plug
the flow passage and reduce the effective voids and
hence reduces the permeability of soils.
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 Methods to Determine Permeability
Methods of determining permeability can be divided
into two major groups:-
– Indirect methods
– Direct methods
Indirect Methods
• In these methods “k” is not determined by direct test,
instead its value is calculated from other test data.
Some of the methods are:
– Allen Hazen Method
– Permeability from Consolidation Test
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 Methods to Determine Permeability
• Allen Hazen (1911) gave an empirical relation for
permeability of filter sands as:
• k= cD102 cm/sec
• Where,
– k = co-efficient of permeability in cm/sec
– C = empirical co-efficient which varies from 90 to 120
often assumed as 100.
– D10 = effective size in cm
• The above equation was obtained from the test results of
Hazen where the effective size of soils varied from 0.1 to
3 mm and the uniformity coefficient for all soils was less
than 5. 35
 Methods to Determine Permeability
• Co-efficient of permeability k can be estimated using:

k =Cv mv w

• This method is applicable to clays with k< 10-7

cm/sec.

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 Methods to Determine Permeability

• Constant Head Permeability Test

– Coarse grained soil
• Falling Head Permeability Test
– Fine grained soil

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 Skematic Sketch for Permeability
• Constant Head
Permeability

• k = QL/AH

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 Procedure for Constant Head
Permeability Test
• Measure the inside diameter of the permeameter.
• Measure the length of the permeameter between
centre of two piezometric tubes.
• Calculate the volume of specimen needed.
• For the given bulk density and moisture content,
calculate the weight of soil needed.
• Set up the permeameter and attach with water supply
to allow the flow of water through the sample so that
the sample is saturated.

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 Procedure for Constant Head
Permeability Test
• When constant flow conditions have been achieved,
measure the hydraulic head across the sample.
• Using a container of known volume record the time
to collect water through the sample.
• Measure and record the temperature of the test water.
• Compute K value at test temperature and also
k 20 at 20 ◦C

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 Calculation for Constant Head
Permeability Test

Dia of Permeameter = 7.62 cm Dry density of soil = 1.66 gm/cm3

Area of specimen = 45.60 cm2
Length of specimen = 12.70 cm
Volume of Specimen = 579.2 cm3

Vol. of water
Test h1 h2 h=h1-h2 t Q=vol/time Temp,
collected 3 KT= QL/Ah K20= kT(nT/n20)
No. (cm) (cm) (cm) (sec) 3 (cm /sec) °C
(cm )

1 57 41.8 15.2 60 35 0.58 30 1.07E-02 8.51E-03

2 56.8 41.8 15 60 36 0.60 30 1.11E-02 8.87E-03
3 56.6 41.8 14.8 60 35 0.58 30 1.10E-02 8.74E-03

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 Falling Head Permeability Test
• Measure the inside diameter of the permeameter.
• Measure the length of soil specimen.
• Calculate the volume of specimen needed.
• For the given bulk density and moisture content,
calculate the weight of soil needed.
• Set up the permeameter and attach with water supply
to allow the flow of water through the sample so that
the sample is saturated

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 Falling Head Permeability Test
• Once the soil is saturated close the stand pipe valve.
• Measure the height of water in the stand pipe with
respect to some convenient datum.
• Open the stand pipe valve and start the stop watch
simultaneously.
• After reasonable quantity of water has flowed out of
stand pipe, close the stand pipe valve and measure
time & height.
• Measure and record the water temperature.

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 Skematic Sketch for
Falling Head Permeability

K= 2.3 aL/At log(h1/h2)

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 Permeability by Falling Head

Internal Dia of mould, D = 10.16 cm Remoulded dry density of sample = 1.7 gm/cm3
Internal Height of mould, L = 15 cm
Int Area of Mould, A = 81.073 cm2
Int. Vol of mould = V 1216.1 cm3
Dia of stand pipe, d = 0.6 cm
Area of stand pipe, a = 0.2827 cm2

Test h1 h2
Log(h1/h2) t sec T °C KT=[2.3a.L/A.t)}log(h1/h2) K 20=KT(hT/h20)
No (cm) (cm)

1 70 66.8 0.02 300 28 8.15024E-06 6.78E-06

2 70 66.7 0.02 300 28 8.41118E-06 7.00E-06

3 66.7 63.8 0.02 300 28 7.74259E-06 6.44E-06

Average K value (cm/sec) 6.74E-06

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