Laboratory and field soil permeability test

• Main Author: Chong, Han Siang
• Other Authors: Leong Eng Choon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Civil engineering::Geotechnical
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/143345
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Hydraulic conductivity of soil is a complex parameter which plays a significant role in irrigation, agriculture, slope stability and flash flood events. This is especially true with the recent climate change and the increase of impervious surface in most of the countries. This project uses constant-head double ring infiltrometer and falling-head permeability test to determine the hydraulic permeability of Jurong Formation residual soils in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with the aid of HYDRUS 1-D. The hydraulic permeability of residual soils in Nanyang Technological University were found to be in the order of 10-7 and 10-8 m/s. The van Genuchten parameters “α” and “n” were found to be in the range of 0.01 m-1 to 0.35 m-1 and 1.4 to 2.1, respectively, using HYDRUS 1-D. This suggest that the soils mostly consist of fine-grained soils such as silt and clay. It was also noticeable that the spatial variation within each site is small suggesting the high homogeneity of the soil at the surface for each site. It was also observed that the infiltration rate in constant-head double ring infiltrometer test agrees with the Horton’s infiltration model for all sample with a low RMSE value.