Calculation of the Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity of Fine-Grained Soils

Abstract

• Prepared by the KSTAT Standards Committee of the Standards Development Council of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of ASCE

  Calculation of the Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity of Fine-Grained Soils is the fourth standard in a series that enhances the probabilistic characterization and understanding of the behavior of a key groundwater parameter, the saturated hydraulic conductivity.

  Standard ANSI/ASCE/EWRI 65-17 provides guidelines for calculating saturated hydraulic conductivity ($K_{sat}$), permeability, and porosity of fine-grained soils. The calculation has four components: strain-stress data from a step-load test; one-dimensional vertical consolidation theory relating $K_{sat}$ to the coefficient of consolidation; the relation between $K_{sat}$ and permeability; and the relation between porosity and the void ratio of the soil.

  This standard’s methodology can be applied to refine or improve calculations of land subsidence, groundwater flow prediction, and transport of dissolved solutes moving in groundwater. The methodology in this standard is limited to fine-grained, compressible, inorganic soils. Highly organic soils (peat) exhibit anomalous primary and secondary consolidation and are out of scope of this standard.

  ASCE 65-17 will be useful to environmental engineers, water resources engineers, and anyone who uses hydraulics in engineering.