Hydraulic conductivity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hydraulic conductivity, symbolically represented as , is a property of vascular plants, soils

and rocks, that describes the ease with which a uid (usually water) can move through pore
spaces or fractures. It depends on the intrinsic permeability of the material, the degree of
saturation, and on the density and viscosity of the uid. Saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ksat,
describes water movement through saturated media.
Typical ranges of hydraulic conductivity for dierent soils can be found on Geotechdata.info
database (http://www.geotechdata.info/parameter/permeability.html).

Contents
1 Methods of determination
2 Estimation by empirical approach
2.1 Estimation from grain size
2.2 Pedotransfer function
3 Determination by experimental approach
3.1 Laboratory methods
3.1.1 Constant-head method
3.1.2 Falling-head method
3.2 In-situ (eld) methods
3.2.1 Augerhole method
4 Related magnitudes
4.1 Transmissivity
4.2 Resistance
5 Anisotropy
6 Relative properties
7 Ranges of values for natural materials
8 Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity by Soil Texture
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

Methods of determination
There are two broad categories of determining hydraulic conductivity:
Empirical approach by which the hydraulic conductivity is correlated to soil properties like
pore size and particle size (grain size) distributions, and soil texture

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Experimental approach by
which the hydraulic conductivity
is determined from hydraulic
experiments using Darcy's law
The experimental approach is
broadly classied into:
Laboratory tests using soil
samples subjected to hydraulic
experiments
Field tests (on site, in situ) that
are dierentiated into:

Overview of determination methods

small scale eld tests,

using observations of the water level in cavities in the soil
large scale eld tests, like pump tests in wells or by observing the functioning of
existing horizontal drainage systems.
The small scale eld tests are further subdivided into:
inltration tests in cavities above the water table
slug tests in cavities below the water table

Estimation by empirical approach

Estimation from grain size
Allen Hazen derived an empirical formula for approximating hydraulic conductivity from grain
size analyses:

where
Hazen's empirical coeicient, which takes a value between 0.0 and 1.5 (depending on
literatures), with an average value of 1.0. A.F. Salarashayeri & M. Siosemarde give C as
usually taken between 1.0 and 1.5, with D in mm and K in cm/s.
is the diameter of the 10 percentile grain size of the material

Pedotransfer function
A pedotransfer function (PTF) is a specialized empirical estimation method, used primarily in
the soil sciences, however has increasing use in hydrogeology.[1] There are many dierent PTF
methods, however, they all attempt to determine soil properties, such as hydraulic conductivity,
given several measured soil properties, such as soil particle size, and bulk density.

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Determination by experimental approach

There are relatively simple and inexpensive laboratory tests that may be run to determine the
hydraulic conductivity of a soil: constant-head method and falling-head method.

Laboratory methods
Constant-head method
The constant-head method (http://www.geotechdata.info/geotest/constant-head-permeabilitytest.html) is typically used on granular soil. This procedure allows water to move through the
soil under a steady state head condition while the quantity (volume) of water owing through
the soil specimen is measured over a period of time. By knowing the quantity
of water
measured, length of specimen, cross-sectional area
of the specimen, time required for the
quantity of water
to be discharged, and head , the hydraulic conductivity can be calculated:

where

is the ow velocity. Using Darcy's Law:

and expressing the hydraulic gradient

where

as:

is the dierence of hydraulic head over distance

Solving for

, yields:

gives:

Falling-head method
The falling-head method (http://www.geotechdata.info/geotest/falling-head-permeability-test) is
totally dierent from the constant head methods in its initial setup; however, the advantage to
the falling-head method is that it can be used for both ne-grained and coarse-grained soils. The
soil sample is rst saturated under a specic head condition. The water is then allowed to ow
through the soil without maintaining a constant pressure head.[2]

In-situ (eld) methods

Augerhole method

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There are also in-situ methods for measuring the hydraulic conductivity in the eld.
When the water table is shallow, the augerhole method, a slug test, can be used for determining
the hydraulic conductivity below the water table.
The method was developed by Hooghoudt (1934) [3] in The Netherlands and introduced in the
US by Van Bavel en Kirkham (1948).[4]
The method uses the following steps:
1. an augerhole is perforated into the soil to below the water table
2. water is bailed out from the augerhole
3. the rate of rise of the water level in the hole is recorded
4. the K-value is calculated from the data as:[5]
K = F (Ho-Ht) / t
where: K = horizontal saturated hydraulic conductivity (m/day), H
= depth of the waterlevel in the hole relative to the water table in
the soil (cm), Ht = H at time t, Ho = H at time t = 0, t = time (in
seconds) since the rst measurement of H as Ho, and F is a factor
depending on the geometry of the hole:
F = 4000 /

(20+D/ )(2 /D)

where: = radius of the cylindrical hole (cm),

is the average
depth of the water level in the hole relative to the water table in the
soil (cm), found as =(Ho+Ht)/2, and D is the depth of the bottom
of the hole relative to the water table in the soil (cm).

Cumulative frequency
distribution (lognormal) of
hydraulic conductivity
(X-data)

The picture shows a large variation of K-values measured with the

augerhole method in an area of 100 ha.[6] The ratio between the highest and lowest values is 25.
The cumulative frequency distribution is lognormal and was made with the CumFreq program.

Related magnitudes
Transmissivity
The transmissivity is a measure of how much water can be transmitted horizontally, such as to a
pumping well.
Transmissivity should not be confused with the similar word transmittance used in optics, meaning the fraction
of incident light that passes through a sample.

An aquifer may consist of soil layers. The transmissivity for horizontal ow

of the
layer with a saturated thickness
and horizontal hydraulic conductivity
is:

Transmissivity is directly proportional to horizontal hydraulic conductivity

and thickness
2
Expressing
in m/day and
in m, the transmissivity
is found in units m /day.
The total transmissivity
of the aquifer is:[5]

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soil

where

signies the summation over all layers

The apparent horizontal hydraulic conductivity

where

of the aquifer is:

, the total thickness of the aquifer, is

, with

The transmissivity of an aquifer can be determined from pumping tests.[7]

Inuence of the water table
When a soil layer is above the water table, it is not saturated and does not contribute to the
transmissivity. When the soil layer is entirely below the water table, its saturated thickness
corresponds to the thickness of the soil layer itself. When the water table is inside a soil layer,
the saturated thickness corresponds to the distance of the water table to the bottom of the layer.
As the water table may behave dynamically, this thickness may change from place to place or
from time to time, so that the transmissivity may vary accordingly.
In a semi-conned aquifer, the water table is found within a soil layer with a negligibly small
transmissivity, so that changes of the total transmissivity (Dt) resulting from changes in the level
of the water table are negligibly small.
When pumping water from an unconned aquifer, where the water table is inside a soil layer
with a signicant transmissivity, the water table may be drawn down whereby the transmissivity
reduces and the ow of water to the well diminishes.

Resistance
The resistance to vertical ow (Ri) of the
vertical hydraulic conductivity Kvi is:
Ri =

soil layer with a saturated thickness

and

/ Kvi

Expressing Kvi in m/day and

in m, the resistance (Ri) is expressed in days.

The total resistance (Rt) of the aquifer is:[5]

Rt = Ri =

/ Kvi

where signies the summation over all layers: = 1, 2, 3, . . .

The apparent vertical hydraulic conductivity (KvA) of the aquifer is:
KvA = Dt / Rt
where Dt is the total thickness of the aquifer: Dt =

, with = 1, 2, 3, . . .

The resistance plays a role in aquifers where a sequence of layers occurs with varying horizontal
permeability so that horizontal ow is found mainly in the layers with high horizontal
permeability while the layers with low horizontal permeability transmit the water mainly in a
vertical sense.

Anisotropy
When the horizontal and vertical hydraulic conductivity (Khi and Kvi) of the

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soil layer

dier considerably, the layer is said to be anisotropic with respect to hydraulic conductivity.
When the apparent horizontal and vertical hydraulic conductivity (KhA and KvA) dier
considerably, the aquifer is said to be anisotropic with respect to hydraulic conductivity.
An aquifer is called semi-conned when a saturated layer with a relatively small horizontal
hydraulic conductivity (the semi-conning layer or aquitard) overlies a layer with a relatively
high horizontal hydraulic conductivity so that the ow of groundwater in the rst layer is mainly
vertical and in the second layer mainly horizontal.
The resistance of a semi-conning top layer of an aquifer can be determined from pumping
tests.[7]
When calculating ow to drains [8] or to a well eld [9] in an aquifer with the aim to control the
water table, the anisotropy is to be taken into account, otherwise the result may be erroneous.

Relative properties
Because of their high porosity and permeability, sand and gravel aquifers have higher hydraulic
conductivity than clay or unfractured granite aquifers. Sand or gravel aquifers would thus be
easier to extract water from (e.g., using a pumping well) because of their high transmissivity,
compared to clay or unfractured bedrock aquifers.
Hydraulic conductivity has units with dimensions of length per time (e.g., m/s, ft/day and
(gal/day)/ft ); transmissivity then has units with dimensions of length squared per time. The
following table gives some typical ranges (illustrating the many orders of magnitude which are
likely) for K values.
Hydraulic conductivity (K) is one of the most complex and important of the properties of
aquifers in hydrogeology as the values found in nature:
range over many orders of magnitude (the distribution is often considered to be lognormal),
vary a large amount through space (sometimes considered to be randomly spatially
distributed, or stochastic in nature),
are directional (in general K is a symmetric second-rank tensor; e.g., vertical K values can
be several orders of magnitude smaller than horizontal K values),
are scale dependent (testing a m of aquifer will generally produce dierent results than a
similar test on only a cm sample of the same aquifer),
must be determined indirectly through eld pumping tests, laboratory column ow tests or
inverse computer simulation, (sometimes also from grain size analyses), and
are very dependent (in a non-linear way) on the water content, which makes solving the
unsaturated ow equation diicult. In fact, the variably saturated K for a single material
varies over a wider range than the saturated K values for all types of materials (see chart
below for an illustrative range of the latter).

Ranges of values for natural materials

Table of saturated hydraulic conductivity (K) values found in nature
Values are for typical fresh groundwater conditions using standard values of viscosity and
specic gravity for water at 20C and 1 atm. See the similar table derived from the same source
for intrinsic permeability values.[10]

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K (cm/s)

10 101

K (ft/day)

105 10,000 1,000 100 10

Relative
Permeability

100=1 101 102 103 104 105 106 107

Pervious

Aquifer

0.1

Well
Sorted
Gravel

None

Very Fine Sand, Silt,

Loess, Loam

Peat
Highly Fractured Rocks

Impervious

Poor

Well Sorted Sand

or Sand & Gravel

Unconsolidated
Clay & Organic

0.01 0.001 0.0001 105 106 107

Semi-Pervious

Good

Unconsolidated
Sand & Gravel

Consolidated
Rocks

108 109 1010

Layered Clay

Oil Reservoir
Rocks

Fresh
Sandstone

Fat / Unweathered Clay

Fresh
Limestone,
Dolomite

Fresh
Granite

Source: modied from Bear, 1972

Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity by Soil Texture

See also
Aquifer test
Pedotransfer functionfor estimating hydraulic conductivities given soil properties

References
1. Wsten, J.H.M., Pachepsky, Y.A., and Rawls, W.J. (2001). "Pedotransfer functions: bridging the gap
between available basic soil data and missing soil hydraulic characteristics". Journal of Hydrology
251 (3-4): 123150. Bibcode:2001JHyd..251..123W (http://adsabs.harvard.edu
/abs/2001JHyd..251..123W). doi:10.1016/S0022-1694(01)00464-4 (https://dx.doi.org
/10.1016%2FS0022-1694%2801%2900464-4).
2. Liu, Cheng "Soils and Foundations." Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001 ISBN
0-13-025517-3
3. S.B.Hooghoudt, 1934, in Dutch. Bijdrage tot de kennis van enige natuurkundige grootheden van de
grond. Verslagen Landbouwkundig Onderzoek No. 40 B, p. 215-345.
4. C.H.M. van Bavel and D. Kirkham, 1948. Field measurement of soil permeability using auger holes.
Soil. Sci. Soc. Am. Proc 13:90-96.
5. Determination of the Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity. Chapter 12 in: H.P.Ritzema (ed., 1994)
Drainage Principles and Applications, ILRI Publication 16, p.435-476. International Institute for Land
Reclamation and Improvement, Wageningen (ILRI), The Netherlands. ISBN 90-70754-33-9. Free
download from: [1] (http://www.waterlog.info/articles.htm) , under nr. 6, or directly as PDF : [2]
(http://www.waterlog.info/pdf/chap12.pdf)
6. Drainage research in farmers' elds: analysis of data. Contribution to the project Liquid Gold of the
International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement (ILRI), Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Free download from : [3] (http://www.waterlog.info/articles.htm) , under nr. 2, or directly as PDF : [4]

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(http://www.waterlog.info/pdf/analysis.pdf)
7. J.Boonstra and R.A.L.Kselik, SATEM 2002: Software for aquifer test evaluation, 2001. Publ. 57,
International Institute for Land reclamation and Improvement (ILRI), Wageningen, The Netherlands.
ISBN 90-70754-54-1 On line : [5] (http://content.alterra.wur.nl/Internet/webdocs/ilri-publicaties
/publicaties/Pub57/Pub57.pdf)
8. The energy balance of groundwater ow applied to subsurface drainage in anisotropic soils by pipes
or ditches with entrance resistance. International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement,
Wageningen, The Netherlands. On line : [6] (http://www.waterlog.info/pdf/enerart.pdf) . Paper based
on: R.J. Oosterbaan, J. Boonstra and K.V.G.K. Rao, 1996, The energy balance of groundwater ow.
Published in V.P.Singh and B.Kumar (eds.), Subsurface-Water Hydrology, p. 153-160, Vol.2 of
Proceedings of the International Conference on Hydrology and Water Resources, New Delhi, India,
1993. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. ISBN 978-0-7923-3651-8 . On line :
[7] (http://www.waterlog.info/pdf/enerbal.pdf). The corresponding free EnDrain program can be
downloaded from: [8] (http://www.waterlog.info/endrain.htm)
9. Subsurface drainage by (tube)wells, 9 pp. Explanation of equations used in the WellDrain model.
International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement (ILRI), Wageningen, The Netherlands.
On line: [9] (http://www.waterlog.info/pdf/wellspac.pdf) . The corresponding free WellDrain program
can be downloaded from : [10] (http://www.waterlog.info/weldrain.htm)
10. Bear, J. (1972). Dynamics of Fluids in Porous Media. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-65675-6.

External links
Hydraulic conductivity calculator (http://www.fxsolver.com/solve/share
/jZLNM1J9bHMGTCqIglfgmQ==/)
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