Experimental Study on the Anisotropic Hydraulic Conductivity of a Sandstone–Mudstone Particle Mixture
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 11
Abstract
This study focuses on the anisotropic hydraulic conductivity of a sandstone–mudstone particle mixture. Permeameter tests were performed in the laboratory. The effects of the mixture’s dry bulk density and mudstone particle content on its anisotropic hydraulic conductivity were investigated accordingly. Both the horizontal and vertical hydraulic conductivities were compared based on the calculation results from empirical grain-size formulas and tests. The best predictive formula for the hydraulic conductivities was found to be the Terzaghi empirical formula. It was found that the average horizontal hydraulic conductivity is about 2.0 times more than that of the vertical one. The anisotropy ratio initially increases and then decreases with the increase of the mudstone particle content by weight. A maximum ratio of 2.946 was obtained when the mudstone particle content reached about 60% by weight.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Science and Technology Support Program in P. R. China under Grant No. 2012BA05B04, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51479012, the Chongqing Science & Technology Commission of China under Grant No. cstc2013jcyjA30009 and cstc2014jcyjA30003, and the Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Hydraulic and Waterway Engineering of the Ministry of Education of P.R. China under Grant No. SLK2014B07.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 11 • November 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 24, 2014
Accepted: Mar 2, 2015
Published online: Apr 13, 2015
Discussion open until: Sep 13, 2015
Published in print: Nov 1, 2015
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