Hydraulic Conductivity - Methods of Determination

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
  • Experimental approach by which the hydraulic conductivity is determined from hydraulic experiments using Darcy's law

The experimental approach is broadly classified into:

  • Laboratory tests using soil samples subjected to hydraulic experiments
  • Field tests (on site, in situ) that are differentiated into:
    • small scale field tests, using observations of the water level in cavities in the soil
    • large scale field tests, like pump tests in wells or by observing the functioning of existing horizontal drainage systems.

The small scale field tests are further subdivided into:

  • infiltration tests in cavities above the water table
  • slug tests in cavities below the water table

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