Hydraulic Conductivity and Seepage

A. Bernoulli’s Equation
 Total head

 Hydraulic Gradient

B. Darcy’s Law
In 1856, Henri Philibert Gaspard Darcy published a simple empirical equation for the discharge velocity
of water through saturated soils. This equation was based primarily on Darcy’s observations about the
flow of water through clean sands and is given as:

C. Hydraulic Conductivity
The hydraulic conductivity of soils depends on several factors: fluid viscosity, pore size distribution,
grain-size distribution, void ratio, roughness of mineral particles, and degree of soil saturation. In clayey
soils, structure plays an important role in hydraulic conductivity. Other major factors that affect the
hydraulic conductivity of clays are the ionic concentration and the thickness of layers of water held to
the clay particles.

The hydraulic conductivity of a soil is also related to the properties of the fluid flowing through it by the
following equation:
 D. 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. The constant head test is used primarily for coarse-grained soils. For
fine-grained soils, however, the flow rates through the soil are too small and, therefore, falling head
tests are preferred.
1. Constant Head Test

2. Falling Head Test

Examples:

1. For a constant head laboratory permeability test on a fine sand, the following values are given (refer to
Figure 5.4): Length of specimen = 250 mm; Diameter of specimen = 64 mm; Head difference = 460 mm
Water collected in 2 min = 0.51 cm³
Determine:
a. Hydraulic conductivity, k, of the soil (cm/min)
b. Discharge velocity (cm/min)
c. Seepage velocity (cm/min)
2. A permeable soil layer is underlain by an impervious layer, as shown in Figure. With k = 4.8 x 10 ֿ³cm/sec
for the permeable layer, calculate the rate of seepage through it in m³/hr/m width if H = 3 m and α= 5˚.

3. For a falling head permeability test, the following values are given: length of specimen = 38 cm, area of
specimen = 19 cm₂, and k = 0.175 cm/min. What should be the area of the standpipe for the head to
drop from 64 cm to 30 cm in 8 min?
4. The hydraulic conductivity of a clayey soil is 3 x 10ֿ⁷ cm/sec. The viscosity of water at 25 ˚C is 0.0911 x
10ֿ⁴g-sec/cm². Calculate the absolute permeability, of the soil.

E. Equivalent Hydraulic Conductivity in Stratified Soil

Depending on the nature of soil deposit, the hydraulic conductivity of a given layer of soil may vary with
the direction of flow. In a stratified soil deposit where the hydraulic conductivity for flow in different
directions changes from layer to layer, an equivalent hydraulic conductivity determination becomes
necessary to simplify calculations. The following derivations relate to the equivalent hydraulic
conductivity for flow in vertical and horizontal directions through multilayered soils with horizontal
stratification.
 F. Permeability Test in the Field by Pumping from Wells
In the field, the average hydraulic conductivity of a soil deposit in the direction of flow can be
determined by performing pumping tests from wells.

SEEPAGE

In many instances, the flow of water through soil is not in one direction only, and it is not uniform over the entire
area perpendicular to the flow. In such cases, the groundwater flow is generally calculated by the use of graphs
referred to as flow nets.

G. Flow Nets
A flow line is a line along which a water particle will travel from the upstream to the downstream side in
the permeable soil medium. An equipotential line is a line along which the potential head at all points is
equal. Thus, if piezometers are placed at different points along an equipotential line, the water level will
rise to the same elevation in all of them. A combination of a number of flow lines and equipotential lines
is called a flow net. Flow nets are constructed to calculate groundwater flow in the media.
Example:

A flow net for flow around a single row of sheet piles in a

permeable soil layer is shown in Figure 5.21. We are given
that kx = kz =k = 5 x 10 ³ֿcm/sec.

a. How high (above the ground surface) will the

water rise if piezometers are placed at points a, b,
c, and d?
b. What is the rate of seepage through flow channel II
per unit length (perpendicular to the section shown)?