Permeability

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.
Bernoulli’s Equation
From fluid mechanics, according to Bernoulli’s equation, the
total head at a point in water under motion can be given by
the sum of the pressure, velocity, and elevation heads, or
Bernoulli’s Equation
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, and
the total head at any point can be adequately represented by
The head loss Δh, can be expressed in a nondimensional form as
Darcy’s Law
In 1856, Darcy published a simple equation for the discharge
velocity of water through saturated soils, which may be
expressed as
Flow rate, Q
SITUATION 1. From the figure shown, the thickness of a permeable soil
layer is 1.1m making an angle of 15 degrees with the horizontal.
k=3.78xcm/sec, e=0.6.
a) Compute the hydraulic gradient.
b) Compute the flow rate in cu. m./hr.
c) Determine the seepage velocity.
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.
Constant-Head Test
Falling-Head Test
SITUATION 2. A sand sample of 40 cross sectional area and 25 cm
long was tested in a constant head permeameter. Under a head of
50cm, the discharge was 150 ml in 9 minutes, determine the hydraulic
conductivity in cm/sec.

SITUATION 3. An experiment to determine the permeability of a soil

sample was conducted. The permeameter in a falling head test setup
involves a cylindrical sample 100mm in diameter and a height of
200mm. The hydraulic head in the 10-mm diameter standpipe through
which the test passed dropped from 1 meter to 600mm in one minute
of observation. From these data,
a. Evaluate the coefficient of permeability of the soil sample in
cm/sec.
b. Determine the time it takes for the water to drop from 1 meter to
750mm.
c. What will be the hydraulic head in the standpipe after 2 minutes?
SITUATION 4. Compute the corrected value of hydraulic conductivity
for the following conditions.
a. If the test temperature in problem 2 is 40 deg. celsius.
b. If the test temperature in problem 3 is 10 deg. celsius.