HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY

HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY
• “Hydraulic Conductivity” (K), in hydrogeology and hydrology, represents the
capacity of a porous medium (such as soil) to transmit water, as per Darcy’s
Law. To illustrate, the rate at which fluid can move through a permeable
medium (such as soil), depends on the properties of that soil (such as intrinsic
permeability) and the fluid (such as viscosity and specific weight).
• The hydraulic conductivity proportionality constant, K, can be conceptualized
as the relative ease of fluid passage through a porous material. It has
direction and magnitude and is represented as a vector; however, the first
part of this discussion presents it as a scalar value. Rearranging Darcy’s law
to solve for hydraulic conductivity.
• In this configuration, it becomes clear that the units of K are L/T because Q
units are (L3/T), A units (L2), h units are (L), and L units are (L).
• Thus, the constant of proportionality, K, has units of velocity (e.g.,
meters/seconds, meters/day). However, K is not a velocity, rather it
represents the transmission properties of the porous material. If water easily
passes through a porous material it is described as having a high hydraulic
conductivity; if water is poorly transmitted through a material it has a low
hydraulic conductivity. These conditions are also referred to as permeable or
of low permeability, respectively.
 INTRINSIC PERMIABILITY
• Freeze and Cherry (1979) describe the results of hydraulic conductivity
experiments used to explore the relationship between physical properties of
the porous media and the fluid. A number of columns filled with different sizes
of glass beads were set up as Darcy columns and changes in specific
discharge were observed. Based on these observations, the relationship of
the specific discharge to measurable characteristics of the porous media and
were noted as shown in Equations.
• When considered together with Darcy’s original observation that q ∝ −dh/dl,
these three relationships lead to a definition of hydraulic conductivity that
includes physical characteristics of the porous media and the influence of
fluid properties.
• Once the properties of the fluid are known, the hydraulic
conductivity can be calculated from the intrinsic
permeability as shown in Equation.
• For sediments and rocks, intrinsic permeability (k) incorporates the influence
of all the media properties that affect flow, not only the mean grain diameter
as was the case for the uniform glass spheres. It has units of L2. The intrinsic
permeability represents the magnitude of variation in the diameters of the
interconnected pores as well as the amount of branching and reconnecting of
the pore pathways over a linear travel path, referred as the degree of
tortuosity. Tortuosity is a measure of actual distance traveled divided by the
shortest distance between two locations. In general, the larger the diameter
of the pores and the more efficiently they are interconnected (less tortuosity),
the larger the intrinsic permeability. In contrast, a porous material with small
diameter pores and many circuitous interconnected pathways (high
tortuosity) would have a lower intrinsic permeability. Intrinsic permeability can
also be computed if the hydraulic conductivity and fluid properties are known
by rearranging Equation.
 Fluid Properties
• The specific weight and dynamic viscosity of the fluid also influence the hydraulic
conductivity. The larger the specific weight of a fluid ( γ = gρ) and the lower the dynamic
viscosity (μ), the higher the hydraulic conductivity. The specific weight, γ, of a fluid is its
density times the gravitational constant, ρg, and the dynamic viscosity, μ, is the ratio of the
shearing stress on a plane to the rate at which fluid velocity changes across the plane
(internal resistance to flow). The influence of fluid properties on the value of hydraulic
conductivity can be illustrated by visualizing how the flow rate would be affected if two Darcy
sand-filled columns under the same hydraulic gradients were set up such that water flowed
through one and molasses flowed through the other (Freeze and Cherry, 1979). It is
assumed that the sand in each column has the same the structure and number of
interconnected pores. Clearly the flow rate of the molasses would be slower than that of
water. This is because the viscosity of molasses is typically more than a thousand times
higher than that of water, while the specific weight of molasses is only about 1.5 times higher
than water
• For groundwater systems, changes in density and viscosity caused by temperature need to be
considered when computing hydraulic conductivities. Dynamic viscosity and density of water as a
function of the water temperature is shown in Figure. Temperature has a more significant impact on
viscosity than density.
• These calculations illustrate that although the changes in K are rather small,
K increases as water temperature increases, because the magnitude of the
decrease in dynamic viscosity (in the denominator) with temperature is larger
than the corresponding decrease in density (in the numerator).
• As fluids of different composition pass through saturated porous medium the
properties of the composition of the fluid will influence hydraulic conductivity
characterization (remember the molasses example). For example, if pure
benzene was spilled during a train accident and entered the top of the 10 °C
groundwater system as liquid benzene, the saturated K value of the sand for
benzene could be computed. In this simplified example, at a temperature of
10°C, the K of sand with an intrinsic permeability, k, of 1 × 10-7 cm2, for
benzene would be governed by the properties of benzene, not properties of
water:
This indicates the K for benzene flow (~ 6 × 10-5 m/s) is lower than
the K for water flow (~ 8 × 10-5 m/s) at the same temperature. This is
because, although benzene is less viscous than water at 10 °C, the
density of benzene is considerably less than that of water. If the
benzene dissolved in the water such that benzene molecules were
being carried as a dissolved substance (solute) within the water, the
flow rate would be controlled by the properties of the water because
no liquid benzene would be present.
• To reiterate, hydraulic conductivity is symbolized by a capital K with units of
length over time L/T. K reflects the impact of the properties of both the fluid
and the medium on the ease with which fluid passes through a medium.
Intrinsic permeability is usually represented by a lowercase k with units of
length squared (L2). k reflects the impact of only the properties of the
medium on the ease with which fluid passes through it. Occasionally ki is
used to represent intrinsic permeability. In older literature, and a few modern
writings, hydraulic conductivity is referred to as permeability or the coefficient
of permeability. In some literature (e.g., Freeze and Cherry, 1979) the term
“permeability” is used to represent k without the “intrinsic” modifier.
Consequently, care needs to be exercised when reading a report or textbook
to clearly understand and apply the information.
• It is useful to check the units associated with each term to decipher how the
terms are being used. In the petroleum industry, the term “permeability”
usually refers to k (L2). Petroleum engineers often work with materials of low
k and if the values are given in units of m2 or cm2 the number is very small
(e.g., 1 × 10-8 to 1 × 10-16 cm2). As a result, they introduced a unit called a
“darcy” that is equivalent to 9.87 x 10-9 cm2 or, approximately 1 × 10-8 cm2
to describe the capacity of petroleum reservoir rocks to transmit fluids. A
sandstone with an intrinsic permeability of 1 × 10-9 cm2 would have a
permeability of 0.1 darcy.
• Most groundwater textbooks contain tables of hydraulic conductivity values
summarized from a large number of laboratory and field tests. The tables
typically include ranges of values for a given type of earth material because
they are formed by a wide variety of processes that influence the size and
distribution of interconnected voids and complexity of pathways. A gravel that
is infilled with sand, silt and clay will have a lower hydraulic conductivity than
and open framework gravel found in a river bar. Though both are classified as
gravel deposits, their hydraulic conductivity may differ by orders of
magnitude. As explained,the larger and more interconnected the pores of a
material, the higher the hydraulic conductivity.
• Freeze and Cherry (1979) provide a useful table of intrinsic permeability, k,
and hydraulic conductivity, K, of unconsolidated material, sedimentary rocks,
and igneous and metamorphic rocks similar to that shown as Figure 32. This
figure presents the range of values of hydraulic conductivity and intrinsic
permeability in three systems of units. The data show that hydraulic
conductivity varies over a wide range. There are few other physical
parameters that take on values ranging over 13 orders of magnitude. In
practical terms, this wide range of values suggests that an order-of-
magnitude knowledge of hydraulic conductivity can be useful. Conversely, it
implies that if a third decimal place is reported for a hydraulic conductivity
value, it is likely of little significance.