Requirements for seepage control

Unified soil classes

Typical names Permeability
Shear Compress - Workability
strength iblity as
construction When K K
material compacted cm/s ft/d

Well-graded gravels, gravel - -2

sand mixtures, little or no fines
Excellent Negligible Excellent Perviou s K > 10 K > 30 GW
Well-graded gravels, gravel - Very
sand mixtures, little or no fines
Good Negligible Good
perviou s K > 10
-2
K > 30 GP
-3
Silty gravels, gravel-sand-silt Semi-pervious K = 10 K=3
mixtures
Good to fair Negligible Good
to impervious to 10 -6 to 3 ×10 -3 GM
-3 -3
Clayey gravels, gravel-sand - K = 10 K = 3 × 10
clay mixtures
Good Very lo w Good Impervious
to 10 -6 to 3 ×10 -5 GC
Well-graded sands, gravelly Excellent Negligible Excellent Perviou s -3
sands, little or no fine s
K > 10 K>3 SW
Poorly graded sands, gravelly -3
sands, little or no fine s
Good Very lo w Fair Perviou s K > 10 K>3 SP
Semi-pervious -3
Silty sands, sands silt
mixtures
Good to fair Low Fair
to impervious
K = 10
to 10 -6
K=3
to 3 ×10 -3 SM
-6 -3
Clayey sands, sand-silt
mixtures
Good to fair Low Good Imperviou s K = 10
to 10 -8
K = 3 × 10
to 3 ×10 -5
SC
Inorganic silts and very fine sands, Medium to Semi-pervious K = 10
-3
K=3
rock flour , silty or clayey fine sands,
or clayey silts with slight plasticity
Fair high
Fair
to impervious to 10 -6 to 3 ×10 -3 ML
Inorganic clays of low to medium Good to -6 -3
K = 10 K = 3 × 10
plasticity , gravelly clays, sandy
clays, silty clays, and lean clay s
Fair Medium fair Imperviou s
to 10 -8 to 3 ×10 -5 CL
-4 -1
Organic silts and organic silty Semi-pervious K = 10 K = 3 × 10
clays of low plasticity
Poor Medium Fair
to impervious to 10 -6 to 3 ×10 -3 OL
-4 -1
Inorganic silts, micaceous or Semi-pervious K = 10 K = 3 × 10
diatomaceous fine sandy or
silty soil, elastic silts
Fair to poor High Poor
to impervious to 10 -6 to 3 ×10 -3 MH
-6 -3
Inorganic clays of high High very K = 10 K = 3 × 10
plasticity , fat clays
Poor
high
Poor Imperviou s
to 10 -8 to 3 ×10 -5 CH
-6 -3
Organic clays of medium to K = 10 K = 3 × 10
high plasticity , organic silts
Poor High Poor Imperviou s
to 10 -8 to 3 ×10 -5 OH
Peat and other highly
organic soil s
Not suitable for construction PT