Author(s)

Ahlinhan Marx Ferdinand^*, Djenou B. Dorothée, Adjovi Edmond Codjo

Laboratory of Study and Test in Civil Engineering (L2EGC), National High School of Public Works (ENSTP), National University of Sciences, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics (UNSTIM), Abomey, Republic of Benin.

Hydraulic conductivity is the ability of a porous media to transfer water through its pore matrix. That is a key parameter for the design and analysis of soil fluid associated structures and issues. This paper presents the test results of the vertical hydraulic conductivity k_v carried out on one poorly graded sand and three gap graded gravely sand. It was found that the vertical hydraulic conductivity of saturated soil depends on the grain size distribution curve, on the initial relative density of the soil. Compilation of these current test results and other test results published, shows that the common approaches predict well to some extent the vertical hydraulic conductivity k_v for the poorly graded sand materials and underestimate the k_v values for gap graded gravely sand materials. Therefore, new approaches are developed for the prediction of the vertical hydraulic conductivity in saturated poorly graded sand and gap graded gravely sand. The derived results from the new approaches lie in the range of the recommended values by (EAU 2012) and (NAVFAC DM 7 1974).

Permeability, Hydraulic Conductivity, Tests, Saturated Granular Soils, Prediction Approaches

Ferdinand, A. , Dorothée, D. and Codjo, A. (2023) Experimental Analysis of Hydraulic Conductivity for Saturated Granular Soils. Geomaterials, 13, 71-90. doi: 10.4236/gm.2023.133006.