Application and Comparison of Various Methods for Determining Hydraulic Conductivity in Saturated Clay-Rich Deposits——A Case Study of Clay-Rich Sediments in North Jiangsu Coastal Plain
Ge Qin
Liang Xing
Gong Xulong
Liu Yan
Abstract：The hydraulic conductivity (K) of deposits is one of the important and fundamental properties for solving various problems in the study filed of hydrogeology and geotechenical engineering.However,in the study of clay-rich deposits,the selection of the evaluation method for K is obviously affected by the scale of the site and the degree of deposits disturbance due to the complex deposit structure.Chemical (δ18O as the tracer),laboratory,and empirical formula methods were used to predict the vertical hydraulic conductivity in saturated clay-rich deposits,and their practicability was analyzed.Take the Quaternary thick clay-rich sediments in North Jiangsu coastal plain for example,the estimated hydraulic conductivity of the thick clay-rich sediments was lower than 1 × 10-11 m/s using δ18 O chemical methods.Using laboratory method,that range between 2.61 × 10-8 and 9× 10-12 m/s.The larger predictive values were determined by empirical formula method and higher than that obtained using hydraulic method by several times.Chemical method was applied to display the long-term experimental results under the natural conditions,and the equivalent permeability of the decade meters clay-rich deposits.Besides,the residence time of pore water in the sediments was also predicted.Combined with the laboratory parameters of clay samples,such as liquid and plastic limit,laboratory and empirical formula methods could provide series hydraulic conductivities of the whole profile,in order to show the difference of different permeability coefficient prediction methods in thick clay-rich profile.
Keywords：clay-rich deposithydraulic conductivityδ18O chemical methodlaboratory methodempirical formula methodNorth Jiangsu coastal plainhydrogeology
Publication Date：2017-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：11( 793-803 )