WITH THE NAME OF ALLAH THE MOST BENIFICIENT

& MERCIFUL

1
Contents
• Permeability
• Scope of Permeability
• Darcy’s law
• Seepage Velocity νs
• Superficial Velocity ν
• Validity of Darcy’s Law
Contents
• Permeability through Stratified Soils
1. Horizontal Permeability
2. Vertical Permeability
• Methods of Determining k (Permeability Constant)
1. Indirect Methods
2. Direct Methods
Contents
• Factors affecting Permeability
 Permeability
Permeability is the ease with which water can flow through the soil and rocks
Depending upon permeability soil can be classified into two types
1. Pervious Soils(Gravel and Sand) k = permeability constant = 10-2 to 10-5 m/s
2. Impervious Soils(Silt and Clay) k= 10 -8 m/s
Clay is impermeable – water will not flow through easily
 Scope of Permeability
• Analysis of stability of foundations and excavations coming in contact with water
• Analysis of seepage through dams or embankments
• Design of drainage systems
• Water Lowering
• Estimation of well yields and design of tube wells
• Design of water storing structures e.g relief wells, previous blanket etc.
• Grouting Analysis
 Darcy’s Law
Darcy’s law is stated as
“The velocity of flow(ν) is directly proportional to the hydraulic
Gradient(i)”
Mathematically
ν∞i
ν = k.i
ν =k.Δh/ΔL i= Δh/ΔL h= head
L= length
 Superficial Velocity
The approach velocity νa or the discharge velocity νd is known as the
superficial velocity
Or
“The velocity of water when approaching and leaving a porous surface is
known as superficial velocity”
Both νa and νd are same

e.g νd = νa = ν
 Seepage Velocity
“The velocity of water when passing through a porous surface or the
velocity through voids is known as seepage velocity.”

Seepage velocity is represented by νs

Also

νs > ν
Validity of Darcy’s Law(Reynolds Number)
• Assumption in Darcy’s Law is that the flow is Laminar
• Reynolds found that as long as Reynolds Number (NR ) does not exceed
2000 flow will be laminar
• NR=νDϒw/µg ≤ 2000
• The above eq was Laminar flow for pipes for a porous medium Reynolds
number should not exceed 1
• NR=νDϒw/µg ≤ 1
Validity of Darcy’s Law(Allen Hazen Law)
• According to Allen Hazen k=100(D10)2
• if µ=10-5 ϒ w =1 g = 980 i=1 assuming D10 = D
• we get D= 0.46 or 0.5 mm
• Thus theoretically at 0.5mm diameter particle size flow should be laminar
• But Allen Hazen Proved experimentally that the limiting value of D equal to
2mm for flow to be laminar hence Darcy’s Law would be Invalid.
 Permeability through Stratified Soils
• In Stratified soil the permiablity varies depending upon direction
• Therefore the permiablity will vary when flow of water is perpendicular and
parallel to soil layer
 Horizontal Permeability
• Flow is Parallel to Strata
• Hydraulic Gradient is Same e.g. i1 =i2 =i3 =…..= in= i
• Total Area of the section is sum of area of Layers A1 +A2 +A3 +….+An=A’
• Total Flow is the sum of the flows of the layers q1+q2+q3+….+qn=q’
 Vertical Permeability
• Flow is normal to the strata
• Flow is equal to the flow in each layer q1=q2=q3=….=qn=q’
• Area is equal to the area of each layer A1 =A2 =A3 =….=An=A’
• Total head loss is the sum of all the head losses in the strata h1 +h2 +h3
+….+hn=h’
 Methods of Determining k
• There are 2 methods of determining permeability constant k. These methods
can be divided into two major Types:
• Indirect method
• Direct method
 Indirect Method
• In these methods k is not determined by direct tests, instead its value is
calculated from other test data. Only the data is processed no original
experiments are conducted
• There are two methods to calculate:
• Allen Hazen’s Method
• Permeability from Consolidation test.
 Allen Hazen’s Method
• In 1911 Allen Hazen gave an empirical relation for Permeability of filter
sands as:
• k = C(D10)2 cm/sec
• Where
• K = coefficient of permeability
• C = empirical coefficient
• D10 = Effective size
 Value of C
• According to US Civil Engineers Manual suggests the following values for C

Soil Type C
Very fine sand 40-80
Fine sand with appreciable fines 80-120
Medium to coarse sand 120-150
 Permeability from consolidation test
• The purpose of consolidation test to obtain the soil data which is used in
predicting the rate and the amount of settlement of sturctures.
• K = Cv Mv ρw
 Direct Methods
• Laboratory methods
• Field Methods
 Laboratory methods
• Constant head permeameter for coarse grained soil.
• Variable head permeametrer for fine grained soil.
 Constant head permeameter:
• ASTM(D2434)
• K = QL/Aht
• Where
• Q = flow rate
• L = length of pipe
• A = area of pipe
• H = height of pipe
• T = time of flow
Constant head permeameter:
 Variable head permeameter:
• Q = -adh and from Darcy Law
• (-ve sign indicate that the water head decreases with time)
Variable head permeameter:
 Field Test:
• Bore hole Permeability test
• Pumping test.
 Factors affecting Permeability
1. Grain size.
2. Void ratio.
3. Entrapped air and organic impurities.
4. Properties of pore water pressure.
5. Degree of saturation.
6. Adsorbed water.
7. Stratification of soil.
8. Temperature
9. Shape of particles.
 Permeability of Different Particles
• Gravel: High Permeability
• Sand: Moderate permeability
• Clay: least permeability
Permeability of Different Particles
 Grain size
The Permeability varies approximately as the square of grain size
It depends on the effective diameter of the grain size (D10) .

K=C (D10)2

K is Permeability in cm/sec .

C is constant and generally lies between 100 to 150

• The permeability of coarse sand is million times as much that of clay
 Void ratio
• The coefficient of permeability varies with the void ratio as
K α e3 / 1+e
For a given soil, the greater the void ratio, the higher the value of the
coefficient of permeability.
 Entrapped air and organic impurities
• Air entrapped in the soil and organic matter block the passage of water
through soil, hence permeability considerably decreases.
 Properties of pore water pressure.
Pore fluids are fluids that occupy pore spaces in a soil or rock.
Permeability is directly proportional to the unit weight of pore fluid and
inversely proportional to viscosity of pore fluid.
 Degree of saturation
• The permeability of soil is observed to vary directly with the cube of the
degree of saturation. Thus the more the saturated soil, more will be the
permeability.
• Consequently, the permeability of a partially saturated soil is considerably
smaller than that of fully saturated soil.
• Darcy's Law is not strictly applicable to such soils.
 Adsorbed water
• Adsorbed Water means a thin microscopic film of water surrounding
individual soil grains
• This water is not free to move and hence reduces the effective pore space an
thus decreases coefficient of permeability.
 Stratification of soil
• Stratified soils are those which are deposited in layers.
• soils which are formed by layer upon layer of the earth or dust deposited on each other.

• If the flow is parallel to the layers of stratification , the permeability is max. while
the flow in Perpendicular direction occur with min. permeability.
 Temperature
• As the viscosity of the pore fluid decrease with the temperature ,
permeability increases with temperature , as unit weight of pore fluid does
not change much with change in temperature.
Thank You

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