COMPARISON OF MEASURED AND ESTIMATED PERMEABILITY FOR ARTIFICIALLY PREPARED COARSE-GRAINED SOIL SAMPLES

Abstract

Knowledge about soil permeability is important in various scientific fields: hydrology and hydrogeology, geotechnics, environmental geotechnics, and others. Depending on the different goals that need to be achieved by a particular engineering project, the conditions in which the permeability coefficient is determined in terms of applied hydraulic gradients, applied stresses, type of test fluid, etc. are adjusted, as well as the required precision of its determination. In addition, the permeability coefficient is a soil property with the largest range of possible values. It can be determined through various laboratory and field methods, and by applying established empirical correlations using data on the grain-size distribution and empirical coefficients that depend on some factors, such as hydraulic radius (specific surface), curvature, porosity, etc. This paper presents the results of laboratory testing of the permeability coefficient by the constant head test and the use of a permeameter. The results were compared with the permeability coefficient obtained by applying a number of empirical correlations. Artificial samples were prepared in the laboratory by mixing different previously prepared soil fractions in order to determine the influence of particle size and soil gradation on the estimated soil permeability coefficient.

Keywords

• permeability coefficient
• permeameter
• constant head test
• empirical correlations