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Assessing the Effect of Particle Size Distribution on Permeability of Silty-Sandy Soils

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Abstract

The hydraulic conductivity is an important parameter in geotechnical studies. This parameter is required for analyzing, predicting, or modeling water flow, contamination movement and chemical transport in porous media of engineering constructions. Particle size distribution, is one of the most important factors affecting soil permeability. The main aim of the present research is assessing the effect of particle size distribution on the permeability coefficient of silty-sandy soils. For this purpose, three sandy soils and one silty soil from different regions of northern Iran have been selected and non-disturbed and disturbed samples have been provided from them. In the laboratory, the sandy soils were mixed with 10, 20, 30, and 40% of the silty soil, which is can be considered as an innovation for this research, and the physical properties were determined for all samples. To evaluate the permeability coefficient of the samples, first the suitable laboratory specimens were reconstructed with a relative density of 0.55 and then tested by a falling head permeameter apparatus. The obtained results indicated that the evaluated permeability coefficient is completely related to the particle size distribution indices of the soils, so that it increases linearly with increasing some indices namely D10, and D30 as well as decreases with increasing the other indices namely D50, D60, coefficient of uniformity (Cu), and Coefficient of curvature (Cc) as power functions. These found from six regression models developed between the parameters. The values of five calculated statistical indices were revealed that the developed models have high performance degree.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during the current study to support its findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Cc :

Coefficient of curvature

Cu :

Coefficient of uniformity

D10 :

Effective diameter (grain size corresponding to 10% finer)

D30 :

Grain size corresponding to 30% finer

D50 :

Mean grain size (grain size corresponding to 50% finer)

D60 :

Grain size corresponding to 60% finer

Dr :

Relative density

K:

Permeability coefficient

M:

Tengli silt

MAPE:

Mean absolute percentage error

ML:

Low plastic silt

PI:

Plasticity index

R:

Correlation coefficient

R2 :

Coefficient of determination

RMSE:

Root-mean-square error

S1:

Forat sand 1

S2:

Forat sand 2

S3:

Forat sand 3

SEM:

Scanning electron microscope

SM:

Silty sand

SP-SM:

Poorly graded sand with silt

USCS:

Unified soil classification system

VAF:

Variance accounted for

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth Sciences, Damghan University, Damghan, Semnan, Iran

    Fahimeh Zarooei & Davood Fereidooni

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  1. Fahimeh Zarooei
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  2. Davood Fereidooni
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Contributions

FZ has performed the laboratory tests and provided initial draft of the manuscript. The main idea of the research belongs to DF who analyzed the results as well as written and improved the main manuscript.

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Correspondence to Davood Fereidooni.

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Zarooei, F., Fereidooni, D. Assessing the Effect of Particle Size Distribution on Permeability of Silty-Sandy Soils. Geotech Geol Eng 41, 3681–3698 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-023-02481-x

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