Chapter Five Permeability

Chapter Five
Permeability
Lecturer
Dr. Mo’men Ayasrah
2022-2023
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1. Introduction
2. Bernoulli’s Equation
3. Darcy’s Law
4. Hydraulic Conductivity
5. Equivalent Hydraulic Conductivity in Stratified Soil
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Soils are permeable due to the existence of interconnected voids through which water can flow
from points of high energy to points of low energy. The study of the flow of water through
permeable soil media is important in soil mechanics. It is necessary for estimating the quantity of
underground seepage under various hydraulic conditions, for investigating problems involving the
pumping of water for underground construction, and for making stability analyses of earth dams
and earth-retaining structures that are subject to seepage forces.
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From fluid mechanics, we know that, according to Bernoulli’s equation, the total head at a
point in water under motion can be given by the sum of the pressure, velocity, and elevation
heads, or
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If Bernoulli’s equation is applied to the flow of water through a porous soil medium, the term
containing the velocity head can be neglected because the seepage velocity is small, and the total
head at any point can be adequately represented by
Elevation head (he): is the vertical distance from a datum line to the point considered (above or below a datum
plane).
Pressure head (hp): is the height of the vertical column of water in the piezometer installed at that point.
A piezometer is a device used to measure liquid pressure in a system by measuring the height to which a column of
the liquid rises against gravity or a device that measures the pressure of groundwater at a specific point.
𝑢
Total head (ht or h) = elevation head (he or Z) + pressure head (hp or 𝛾𝑤
)
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This shows the relationship between pressure, elevation, and total heads for the flow of water through the soil.
Open standpipes called piezometers are installed at points A and B. The levels to which water rises in the
piezometer tubes situated at points A and B are known as the piezometric levels of points A and B, respectively.
The pressure head at a point is the height of the vertical column of water in the piezometer installed at that point.
The loss of head between two points, A and B, can be given by
The head loss, h, can be expressed in a non-dimensional

form as
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When the hydraulic gradient is increased
gradually, the flow remains laminar in
Zones I
and II, and the velocity, v, bears a linear
relationship to the hydraulic gradient. At a
higher hydraulic gradient, the flow
becomes turbulent (Zone III). When the
hydraulic gradient is decreased, laminar
flow conditions exist only in Zone I. In
most soils, the flow of water through the
void spaces can be considered laminar;
thus,
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In 1856, Darcy published a simple equation for discharge velocity of water through saturated soils,
which may express as:
v = ki
Where:
v = discharge velocity = quantity of water flowing in unit time through a unit gross – sectional area
of soil at right angles to the direction of flow. (m/sec).
k = Hydraulic Conductivity (otherwise known as the coefficient of permeability).
v = is the discharge velocity of water based on the gross cross-sectional area of the soil. However
the actual velocity of water (seepage velocity, vs) through the void spaces, is higher than v, this can
be derived as follows:
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The soil of length L with a gross cross-sectional area A. If the
quantity of water flowing through the soil in a unit time is q,
then
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Hydraulic conductivity is generally expressed in cm/sec or m/sec in SI units and in ft/min or ft/day in English units.
Hydraulic conductivity is generally expressed in cm/sec. It depends on several factors:
1. Soil type (fine-grained or coarse-grained). 2. Grain size distribution.
3. Void ratio. 4. Pore size distribution.
5. Fluid viscosity. 6. Degree of saturation.
7. Roughness of mineral particles.
In clayey soils, structure plays an important role in hydraulic conductivity. Other major factors that affect the
permeability of clays are the ionic concentration and the thickness of layers of water held to the clay particles.
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5.5 Equivalent Hydraulic Conductivity in Stratified Soil
In a stratified soil deposit where the hydraulic conductivity for flow in a given direction changes from layer to
layer, an equivalent hydraulic conductivity can be computed to simplify calculations. The following
derivations relate to the equivalent hydraulic conductivities for flow in vertical and horizontal directions
through multilayered soils with horizontal stratification.
Figure shows n layers of soil with flow in the horizontal direction. Let us consider a cross section of unit
length passing through the n layer and perpendicular to the direction of flow. The total flow through the cross
section in unit time can be written as
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Example
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example
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Chapter Five

The head loss, h, can be expressed in a non-dimensional

k = Hydraulic Conductivity (otherwise known as the coefficient of permeability).

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