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Soil Permeability Coefficients Overview

The document presents tables showing the ranges of permeability coefficients and saturated hydraulic conductivity for different types of soils and earth materials. Soil types with higher permeability like soft sand and gravel have coefficients from 102 to 107 m/day and conduct water rapidly from seconds to days. Finer grained soils with lower permeability like clay and tight rock can take years or centuries for water to pass through and have coefficients ranging from 10-6 to 10-7 m/day. Unconsolidated deposits, sandstones and fractured rocks generally have the highest permeability while clays and unfractured igneous rock have the lowest.

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239 views3 pages

Soil Permeability Coefficients Overview

The document presents tables showing the ranges of permeability coefficients and saturated hydraulic conductivity for different types of soils and earth materials. Soil types with higher permeability like soft sand and gravel have coefficients from 102 to 107 m/day and conduct water rapidly from seconds to days. Finer grained soils with lower permeability like clay and tight rock can take years or centuries for water to pass through and have coefficients ranging from 10-6 to 10-7 m/day. Unconsolidated deposits, sandstones and fractured rocks generally have the highest permeability while clays and unfractured igneous rock have the lowest.

Uploaded by

Zahid Umair
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Example values of coefficients of permeability for various soils (Myslivec)

Coefficient of
Motion of water particle by 1 cm for hydraulic gradient i=1
Type of soil permeability k
per time
[m/day]
Soft sand 102 - 10 6 s – 10 min
Clayey sand 10-1 - 10-2 100 min – 18 hod.
Loess loam 10-2 - 10-4 18 hod. – 70 dní
Loam 10-4 - 10-5 70 dní – 2 roky
Clayey soil 10-5 - 10-6 2 roky – 20 rokù
Clay 10-6 - 10-7 20 -200 rokù
TABLE 5.1 Range of Saturated Hydraulic

Conductivity of Various Soil Materials

Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity, K (m/yr)

Soil Type

Unconsolidated
deposits
1 × 104 - 1 × 107
Gravel
1 × 102 - 1 × 105
Clean sand
1 × 101 - 1 × 104
Silty sand
1 × 10-2 - 1 × 102
Silt, loess
1 × 10-5 - 1 × 101
Glacial till
1 × 10-5 - 1 × 10-2
Unweathered
marine clay

Rocks

Shale 1 × 10-6 - 1 × 10-2

Unfractured 1 × 10-7 - 1 × 10-3


metamorphic
and

igneous rocks 1 × 10-3 - 1 × 101

Sandstone 1 × 10-2 - 1 × 101

Limestone and 1 × 10-1 - 1 × 103


dolomite

Fractured 1 × 101 - 1 × 105


metamorphic
and 1 × 101 - 1 × 105

igneous rocks

Permeable
basalt

Karst
limestone

Source: Adapted from Freeze and Cherry (1979).


TABLE 5.3 Estimated Saturated Hydraulic

Conductivities for Fine-Grained Materials

Saturated

Hydraulic Conductivity,

Grain-Size K (103 m/yr)


Class

Clay <0.0001
Silt, clayey 0.1 - 0.4
Silt, 0.5
slightly
sandy
Silt, 0.8 - 0.9
moderately
sandy
Silt, very 1.0 -1.2
sandy
Sandy silt 1.2
Silty sand 1.4

Source: EPA (1986).

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