Abstract
Hydraulic conductivity tests were conducted on thirteen compacted clayey soils being used for compacted clay liners at landfills throughout the United States. The soils were prepared to various molding water contents and then compacted and permeated in the laboratory. Results of the tests show that for all of the soils, zones exist in the compaction plane (i.e., dry unit weight vs. water content) where the hydraulic conductivity is similar. These zones fall roughly parallel to contours of constant initial saturation (degree of saturation at compaction), with lower hydraulic conductivities generally occurring for conditions corresponding to higher initial saturation. Wet of the line of optimums, lower hydraulic conductivity is also attained for soils that are more plastic and have a greater quantity of fines. A regression equation was developed from the data to estimate hydraulic conductivity given the initial saturation, compactive effort, plasticity index, and clay content.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abacus Concepts. 1992. Stat View. Berkeley, California: Abacus Concepts, Inc.
Acar, Y.,and I. Oliveri. 1990. Pore fluid effects on the fabric and hydraulic conductivity of laboratory-compacted clay. Transportation Research Record 1219. Transportation Research Board. 144–159.
ASA. 1965. Methods of Soil Analysis—Part 2. Black et al, eds. American Society of Agronomy, 891–900.
Benson, C, and D. Daniel. 1990. Influence of clods on hydraulic conductivity of compacted clay. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE 116: 1231–1248.
Benson, C, and G. Boutwell. 1992. Compaction control and scale-dependent hydraulic conductivity of clay liners. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Madison Waste Conference, Madison, Wisconsin. 62–83.
Benson, C, H. Zhai, and X. Wang. 1994. Estimating the hydraulic conductivity of compacted clay liners. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE 120: 366–387.
Bjerrum, L., and J. Huder. 1957. Measurement of the permeability of compacted clays. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, London 1: 6–8.
Boutwell, G., and C. Hedges. 1989. Evaluation of waste-retention liners by multivariate statistics. Proceedings, 12th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Rio de Janeiro. 815–818.
COE. 1980. Engineering Manual EM-1110-2-1906, Laboratory Soils Testing. Office of the Chief of Engineers, Dept. of the Army, Washington, D.C.
Daniel, D. 1987. Earthen liners for land disposal facilities. In Geotechnical Practice for Waste Disposal ’87, GSP No. 13, ASCE. 21–39.
Daniel, D. 1990. Summary review of construction quality control for earthen liners. In Waste Containment Systems: Construction, Regulation, and Performance, GSP No. 26, ASCE, R. Bonaparte, ed. 175–189.
Daniel D., and C. Benson. 1990. Water contentdensity criteria for compacted soil liners. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE 116: 1811–1830.
D’Appolonia, D. 1980. Soil-bentonite slurry trench cutoffs. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE 106: 399–417.
Draper, N., and H. Smith. 1981. Applied Regression Analysis. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Garcia-Bengochea, I., C. Lovell, and A. Altschaeffl. 1979. Pore distribution and permeability of silty clays. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE 105: 839–856.
Kenney, T., M. van Veen, M. Swallow, and M. Sungaila. 1992. Hydraulic conductivity of compacted bentonite-sand mixtures. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 29: 364–374.
Lambe, T. 1954. The permeability of compacted fine-grained soils. Special Technical Publication No. 163, ASTM, Philadelphia. 56–67.
Lambe, T. 1958. The structure of compacted clay. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division, ASCE 84: 2–34.
Mesri, G., and R. Olson. 1971. Mechanisms controlling the permeability of clays. Clays & Clay Miner. 19: 151–158.
Mitchell, J., D. Hooper, and R. Campanella. 1965. Permeability of compacted clay. Journal of Soil Mechanics and foundation Division, ASCE 91: 41–65.
Mundell, J., and B. Bailey. 1985. The design and testing of a compacted clay barrier to limit percolation through landfill covers. In Hydraulic Barriers in Soil and Rock, ASTM STP 874. J. Johnson et al, eds. Philadelphia: ASTM, 246–262.
Olsen, H. 1962. Hydraulic flow through saturated clays. Clays & Clay Miner. 11: 131–161.
Othman, M., and S. Luettich. 1994. Compaction control criteria for clay hydraulic barriers. Transportation Research Record, No. 1462. Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., pp. 28–35.
Trast, J. 1993. Hydraulic conductivity of thirteen compacted clays. M.S. thesis. Dept. of Civil and Environ. Eng., University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Benson, C.H., Trast, J.M. Hydraulic Conductivity of Thirteen Compacted Clays. Clays Clay Miner. 43, 669–681 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1346/CCMN.1995.0430603
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1346/CCMN.1995.0430603