GEOLOGY

Introduction to Hydrogeology
Intrinsic Permeability
Intrinsic permeability of a rock or soil is a measure of its
ability to transmit fluid as the fluid moves through it.
Darcy’s equation:
q=
Where q is the rate of flow per unit area, is the intrinsic
permeability, is the density of water
Intrinsic Permeability

is the acceleration due to gravity, is the dynamic

viscosity of water, and is the unit change in hydraulic
head per unit length of flow.
The unit of intrinsic permeability is m2 or cm2 or darcy.
Intrinsic Permeability

1 m2 = 10 4 cm2 = 1.013 x 10 12 darcy

1 cm 2 = 10 -4 m2 = 1.013 x 10 8 darcy

1 darcy = 9.87 x 10 -13 m2 = 9.87 x 10 -9 cm2

Intrinsic Permeability

Hydraulic conductivity is the function both the porous

medium (pemeability) and the fluid (density and
viscosity)
K=
Intrinsic Permeability
For water, viscosity and density are functions pressure
and temperature. At 20˚C and 1 atm pressure, the density
and dynamic viscosity of water are 998.2 kg/m3 and
1.002 x 10 -3 kg/(m.sec), respectively .Under this
condition the equation is simplified to
K= = k
Intrinsic Permeability
Where K is in m/sec and k is in m2. To convert from
hydraulic conductivity to intrinsic conductivity equation
can be written as

km.sec).K
Example
What is the intrinsic permeability of a water saturated
medium that has a hydraulic conductivity of 15.24
m/day. Assume the ground water is at 20˚C and 1 atm
pressure.
Transmissivity
Transmissivity describes the ease with which water can
move through an aquifer. The concept of transmissivity
is similar to hydraulic conductivity . The main difference
is that transmissivity is a measurement that applies
across the vertical thickness of an aquifer. If the
thickness of the aquifer is b, the transmissivity (T) is T=
bK
Transmissivity
The hydraulic conductivity of a confined aquifer with
thickness of 4 m is 16 m/day. Calculate the
transmissivity of the aquifer.
Specific yield and specific retention
Specific yield is the water released from a water bearing
material by gravity drainage. The specific yield is
expressed as the ratio volume of water yielded from soil
or rock by gravity drainage, to the total volume of the
soil or rock.
Specific yield and specific retention
Where is the specific yield and is the volume of water
that drains from a total volume of .
The term specific retention describe the water that is
retained as a film on the surface of grains or held in
small openings by molecular attraction. The specific
retention is expressed as the ratio of volume of water that
is retained , after being saturated to the total volume of
the soil or rock.
Specific yield and specific retention

Where is the specific retention and is the volume of

water retained against gravity. The porosity is related to
specific yield and specific retention by
n= +
Specific yield and specific retention
After a soil is drained by gravity, the weight of the soil
sample is 85 g. After the sample is oven dried the sample
is 80 g. The bulk density of the water soil is 1.65 g/cm3
and the density of water is 1 g/cm3. Calculate the specific
yield, specific retention, and porosity of the sample.
Assume water that was drained by gravity is 20 g.