Water in Soil

WaterinSoil
PermeabilityandSeepage

 Soil is permeable material because it contains

voids.
id
Water flows through continuous voids.
Flow of water through soil is called seepage.
seepage
Seepage affects the design and construction of
g
g structures.
manyy civil engineering
Examples of seepage problems:
1. Seepage through earth dams and canals
2 Flow
2.
Fl off water
t towards
t
d wells
ll
3. Excavation of open cut in water bearing sand
4 Consolidation of clay
4.
5. Uplift pressure on foundation
6. landfill liners and covers
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Large Earth Dam

crest
free board

filter

riprap
CORE

SHELL

SHELL

blanket

cutoff

SIVA

FOUNDATION

Whatispermeability?
p
y
Ameasureofhoweasilyafluid(e.g.,water)
can pass through a porous medium (e.g.,
canpassthroughaporousmedium(e.g.,
soils)
water

Loose soil

Dense soil

- easy to flow

- difficult to flow

- high permeability

- low permeability
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Bernoullis Equation
The energy of a fluid particle is
made of:

1. Kinetic energy

fluid particle

- due
d to
t velocity
l it

2. Strain energy
gy

- due to pressure
datum

3. Potential energy
- due to elevation (z) with respect to a datum

SIVA

Copyright2001

Bernoullis Equation
Expressing energy in unit of length:
fluid particle

Velocity head
+
Total head =

Pressure head
+

datum

Elevation head

SIVA

v2
u
+
+ zg =
2 w

constant
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Bernoullis Equation
For flow through soils, velocity (and thus
velocity head) is very small. Therefore,

Velocity head
+
Total head =

Pressure head
+

fluid particle

datum

Elevation head

h=
SIVA

+z

Unit of each term is length (m or ft)

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Some Notes
If flow is from A to B, total head is higher at
A than at B.
Energy is dissipated in
overcoming the soil
resistance and hence
is the head loss.
u
Head at A:
hA =[ +z ]A

water
A

Head at B:

SIVA

hB =[

+z ]B
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Some Notes
Hydraulic gradient (i) between A and B is
the total head loss per unit
nit length.
length

TH A TH B
i=
l AB

water
A

length AB, along the

stream line
SIVA

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Darcys Law
Velocity (v) of flow is proportional to the
hydraulic gradient (i) Darcy (1856)
v=ki

Permeability
or hydraulic conductivity
unit of velocity (cm/s)
Typical values from 100 to less than 10-2 cm/sec.
(See Tables 5-1 to 5-3 in Liu and Evett).

SIVA

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Permeability Values (cm/s)

10-6
clays

10-3
silts

Fines

100
sands

gravels

Coarse

For coarse grain soils, k = f(e or D10)

SIVA

12

Empirical Correlations
Hazen Formula
for uniform loose sand

k = C1 D102
k is in cm/sec; D10 effective size in cm;
C1 is a factor between 100 and 150
for dense sand

k = 0.35 D

2
15

k is in cm/sec; D15 size corresponding to 15% passing (mm)

13

Typical values of k

Soil Types
Gravel
Sand
silt
Clay

Permeability
(cm/sec)
102 10-2
1 10-5
10-3 10-7
10-5 10-11

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Measurement of k
Laboratory Methods
Constant Head Method:
For
F soils
il with
ith hi
high
h permeability
bilit ((e.g. sand
d
and gravel)
h
Q = qt = kA t Q
L
QL
k=
hAt
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16

Falling Head Method:

For soils with low permeability (fine
grained soils)

aL h1
k = ln
At h2
2.3aL h1
k=
log
At
h2
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18

In-Situ
In
Situ Permeability Tests

Permeability obtained in the laboratory may not represent actual

permeability in the field because of variability of soils
soils. Also it is
difficult to obtain representative soil samples specially for coarse
grained soils. Therefore insitu tests are needed. The most used
insitu test is the pumping test.
Pumping
P
i
Test
T t
The pumping test has the following features and capabilities:
1. For pumping from wells in confined and unconfined aquifers
2 Piezometric surfaces observed at secondary wells at distance r1
2.
and r2 with heads h1 and h2
3. It gives the horizontal permeability

19

Confined aquifer
dh
i=
dr
A = 2 r H

Hydraulic gradient at any distance r

q = Aki
Ak = (2 rH)k
r2

dh
dr

dr 2
r q r = h 2 Hkdh
1
1
q ln(r2 / r1 )
k=
2 H(h2 h1 )

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21

Unconfined aquifer
A = 2 r h
q = Aki = (2 rh)k
r2

dh
dr

dr 2
r q r = h 2 hk dh
1
1
q ln(r2 / r1 )
k=
(h22 h12 )

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23

Flow in Stratified Soil

Flow parallel to the bedding(horizontal)
k H + k 2 H 2 + k 3 H 3 + ..... + k n H n
kx= k = 1 1
=
H 1 + H 2 + H 3 + ............ + H n

1 k i H i
n

H
n

kH
n

Flow normal to the bedding (vertical)

n

i H i
H 1 + H 2 + H 3 + .......H n
ky= k =
= n
=
Hn
H1 H 2 H 3
Hi
(
)
+
+
+ ...... +
k1
k2
k3
kn
1 ki

H
n
Hi
1 k
i

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25

Capillarity Rise in Soil

The g
groundwater table within a soil mass is the
surface at which the pore water pressure equals
atmospheric pressure.
In nearly all soils there exist water elevations
above the free surface of water. This is called
capillarity.
If the
th lower
l
partt off a dry
d soilil comes iinto
t contact
t t
with water, the water rises in the voids to a
certain height above free water surface.
The upward flow is caused by the surface
tension
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Height of capillary rise

Consider the equilibrium of the free water
of a cylinder of water in the tube above the
free water surface:
Surface tension - atmospheric pressure
at top of the water column =
weight of water column atmospheric
t
h i pressure att bottom
b tt
off the
th
water column
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28

d2
d2
d2
Ts d cos Pa
=w
h c Pa
4
4
4
4Ts cos
hc =
d w
4T

For clean glass and water =0

For water Ts =0.075 N/m and w = 9180 N/m3:

Where hc in m and d in mm
Empirical relation

hc =

d w

0.03
hc =
d

C
hc =
e D10

Where C is empirical factor which depends on the surface

i
impurities,
iti
th
the shape
h
off grains
i off th
the grains
i and
d th
the contact
t t
angle and ranges from 0.01 to 0.05 cm2.
D10 in cm; e void ratio. hc will be in cm

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Typical Values of hc
Soil Type

hc (cm)

Coarse sand

2-5

Medium sand

12 - 25

Fine sand

35 70

Silt

70 150

clay

200 - >400
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