ISSN: 0090-3973
Page Count: 7

Application of a Geotechnical Centrifuge for Estimation of Unsaturated Soil Hydraulic Conductivity

Singh, DN
Associate professor, post graduate student,Indian Institute of Technology,

Kuriyan, SJ
Associate professor, post graduate student,Indian Institute of Technology,

Madhuri, V
Associate professor, post graduate student,Indian Institute of Technology,

(Received 21 November 2000; accepted 9 July 2001)

Abstract

Contamination of the groundwater regime and subsurface soils is one of the major problems that has arisen due to rapid industrialization. Spread of contaminants in the unsaturated soil strata, mainly close to the ground surface and lying above the water table, depends on the hydraulic conductivity of the soil. As such, estimation of unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity becomes very important. However, it is quite difficult to estimate the same in a reasonable amount of time, due to the very low hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soil. The potential of a geotechnical centrifuge for modeling various geoenvironmental engineering problems being very well established, an effort has been made to obtain the unsaturated state of a silty soil, starting from its saturated state, by centrifugation. The soil water characteristic curves obtained have been used for determining the unsaturated soil hydranlic conductivity.

Keywords:
silty soil, saturated soil, unsaturated soil, hydraulic conductivity, centrifuge modeling

Paper ID: JTE12401J
DOI: 10.1520/JTE12401J
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