Specific Surface and Hydraulic Conductivity of Fine-Grained Soils
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 10
Abstract
The Kozeny-Carman (K-C) equation can be used to predict the saturated hydraulic conductivity of a soil, provided enough information is given regarding the porosity and the specific surface. The main limitation of the K-C equation lays in the determination of the specific surface of the soil, a parameter that is not regularly measured but can be estimated with analytical or empirical relations. A method to evaluate the soil’s specific surface is proposed, which combines the contribution of the plastic clayey fraction and that of the granular silty-sandy particles. The applicability of the proposed method and its effect on the performance of the K-C equation have been verified by comparing the K-C estimated hydraulic conductivity with the result of approximately 130 hydraulic conductivity tests on saturated soil specimens in the triaxial apparatus. The results show that the K-C equation and the method for estimating the specific surface predict within an order of magnitude the saturated hydraulic conductivity of clayey to silty-sandy soils with measured hydraulic conductivity in the range .
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Vicenzetto S.r.l. (Villa Estense, Padua, Italy) for providing most of the experimental data and for fruitful collaboration.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 10 • October 2013
Pages: 1828 - 1832
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 27, 2012
Accepted: Jan 11, 2013
Published online: Jan 14, 2013
Published in print: Oct 1, 2013
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