An In-situ Device for Rapid Determination of Permeability for Granular Bases
White, DJ
Assistant Professor, Ph.D. Student, Lecturer, and Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Iowa State University, 476 Town Engineering Building, Ames, IA, 50011-3232

Vennapusa, PK
Assistant Professor, Ph.D. Student, Lecturer, and Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Iowa State University, 476 Town Engineering Building, Ames, IA, 50011-3232

Suleiman, MT
Assistant Professor, Ph.D. Student, Lecturer, and Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Iowa State University, 476 Town Engineering Building, Ames, IA, 50011-3232

Jahren, CT
Assistant Professor, Ph.D. Student, Lecturer, and Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Iowa State University, 476 Town Engineering Building, Ames, IA, 50011-3232

(Received 20 May 2006; accepted 5 December 2006)

Abstract

This paper describes a new in-situ Air Permeameter Test (APT) device developed for estimating the hydraulic conductivity of drainable granular base materials. The device is assembled from commonly available components including air flow meters and differential pressure gages. Using prescribed air flow and pressure measurements from the APT, a theoretical relationship is derived to calculate the saturated hydraulic conductivity. The geometric factors for the device, sample boundary conditions, partial saturation, compressibility and viscosity of the permeant fluid (i.e. air), and the Brooks-Corey pore size distribution index are considered in the derivation. Attempts at correlating in-situ APT calculated hydraulic conductivity values for compacted granular base materials to hydraulic conductivity values from reconstituted laboratory compaction mold permeability tests show that the in-situ values are generally higher and more variable. The in-situ variability is attributed to segregation and is shown to be spatially correlated to the fines content (passing No. 200 sieve).

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Author White DJ, Vennapusa PK, Suleiman MT, Jahren CT Title An In-situ Device for Rapid Determination of Permeability for Granular Bases Symposium , Committee on