Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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.
[11] [12] Sand is least active, having the least specific surface area, followed by silt; clay is the most active. Sand's greatest benefit to soil is that it resists compaction and increases soil porosity, although this property stands only for pure sand, not for sand mixed with smaller minerals which fill the voids among sand grains. [13]
This allows to take into account the effect of temperature on the viscosity of the fluid flowing though the porous medium and to address other fluids than pure water, e.g., concentrated brines, petroleum, or organic solvents. Given the value of hydraulic conductivity for a studied system, the permeability can be calculated as follows:
Darcy's law is an equation that describes the flow of a fluid through a porous medium and through a Hele-Shaw cell.The law was formulated by Henry Darcy based on results of experiments [1] on the flow of water through beds of sand, forming the basis of hydrogeology, a branch of earth sciences.
Soil gradation is an important aspect of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering because it is an indicator of other engineering properties such as compressibility, shear strength, and hydraulic conductivity. In a design, the gradation of the in situ (on site) soil often controls the design and ground water drainage of the site.
The theoretical formulation above assumes that time-dependent volume change of a soil unit only depends on changes in effective stress due to the gradual restoration of steady-state pore water pressure. This is the case for most types of sand and clay with low amounts of organic material.
According to the Unified Soil Classification System, a #4 sieve (4 openings per inch) having 4.75 mm opening size separates sand from gravel and a #200 sieve with an 0.075 mm opening separates sand from silt and clay. According to the British standard, 0.063 mm is the boundary between sand and silt, and 2 mm is the boundary between sand and gravel.
The permeability is reduced due to the presence of air which causes a blockage to the passage of water. [3] Consequently, the permeability of a partially saturated soil is considerably smaller than that of fully saturated soil. In fact, Darcy's Law is not strictly applicable to such soils.