• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.26 no.10
• /
• pp.49-60
• /
• 2010

Unsaturated permeability function is an important factor in the design and analysis of various unsaturated soil structures. Generally the permeability characteristics decrease as the mat ric suction increases and the trend is similar to water retention characteristics of a soil. The permeability of unsaturated soils can be obtained directly by laboratory tests or indirectly by estimation methods from other soil properties. For unsaturated soils sampled from 7 areas in KOREA, SWCCs and unsaturated permeability functions were obtained by experimental tests. The unsaturated permeability results were also compared with the unsaturated permeability functions derived from the SWCCs theoretically. However, the current estimation models of unsaturated permeability function did not express the unsaturated permeability characteristics. Therefore, the FXK-M permeability function was modified to predict more accurate permeability functions for Korean weathered soils using a correction factor that can be calculated from the air-entry value of SWCC. The new estimation model resulted in good agreements for all tested soils.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2008.03a
• /
• pp.111-118
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the overburden effect on soil-water characteristic curve and unsaturated permeability of unsaturated weathered soils. For this, unsaturated suction and permeability tests under various overburden stress were conducted respectively. Then, the coefficient of unsaturated permeability and moisture capacity of weathered soils were estimated and compared. All these results are presented in the paper.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.32 no.1C
• /
• pp.7-16
• /
• 2012

In this paper, using the principle of Static Measurement Methods suggested by Huang (1998), a new experimental device has been made and used in order to calculate the unsaturated permeability of Nak-dong river sand with silt which is an important basic property in the unsaturated soil. This device was designed to measure changes of the unsaturated permeability according to the increase of matric suction. The value of the unsaturated permeability obtained in testing and that obtained using the empirical permeability functional formula were compared and analyzed. As a result, the value of the unsaturated permeability tends to be decreased according to the increase of relative density, silt content and matric suction. This tendency shows it is very closely related to the change of moisture content and void ratio. The empirical permeability functional formula presented by Frelund & Xing (1995) was regarded as the most appropriate model to represent the unsaturated permeability of Nak-dong River silty sand.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.133-142
• /
• 2000

Series of tests were carried out to study permeability characteristics of unsaturated soils. The weathered soils taken from Inju, Sungwhan, and Kuri, were selected to have different amount of fine grained soils in order to find a possible correlation between the unsaturated permeability behavior and fine grained soils contents. Measurements of permeability for unsaturated soils were performed with a newly developed apparatus, which modeled after Klute's apparatus(1965a). The apparatus was designed to measure volumetric water content and permeability by applying incremental suction pressure. Permeability and volumetric water content of unsaturated soils generally decreased as density of the soil increased. The relationship between volumetric water content and permeability was not related to the fine grained soils contents because the plots scattered widely. By comparing volumetric water content with permeability, empirical parameters A and B could be determined, which made to be possible to predict unsaturated permeability from soil-moisture characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2004.03b
• /
• pp.334-341
• /
• 2004

The coefficient of permeability is one of the most important properties in unsaturated soils. The permeability varies with change in the water content as the soil water characteristic curve(SWCC) does. Thus the permeability curve of unsaturated soils has the similar shape with the soil-water characteristic curve(SWCC). Therefore, the methodologies have been studied to simply predict the unsaturated permeability from the SWCC. In this study, the experimental tests of SWCC and permeability were carried out for domestic weathered granite soils. The SWCC test results were fitted to Fredlund and Xing's SWCC equation and then it was found that there are some relationships between the parameters of SWCC equation and the basic soil properties. Accordingly we used an ANN(artificial neural network) model to obtain the SWCC parameters from the basic soil properties. Finally, the coefficients of permeability were predicted from these results by a prediction model.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.35-41
• /
• 2005

In order to analyse the flow problems for an unsaturated soil, it is required to examine closely the characteristics of the coefficient of permeability which is changing with the matric suction. To this ends, a permeability test was conducted on the three samples;granular soil, cohesive soil and silty soil. The specimen was made by pressing the static pressure on the mold filled with soil and the void ratio was controled with the different compaction ratio. And the test was performed by using the modified apparatus of the steady state method which was proposed by flute (1972). The range of matric suction was 0-90 kPa. The measured results for the coefficients of permeability were analysed with the void ratio and the compaction ratio, and it was examined closely the characteristics of the permeability for an unsaturated soil.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
• /
• 2005.10a
• /
• pp.393-398
• /
• 2005

In order to treat flow problems for an unsaturated soils, it is required the mediation of the coefficient of permeability with variation of suction. The coefficient of permeability for soils can be determined by the direct or indirect methods. The direct methods of permeability can be performed either in the laboratory or in the field. The indirect methods can be predicted from the soil-water characteristics curve. Laboratory test methods to measure the coefficient of permeability can be categorized into two types, steady-state and unsteady-state. In this study, the coefficient of permeability for unsaturated soils was determined by the modified apparatus for steady state-method(Klute, 1972) and was predicted from the equations of Brooks and Corey(1964) and Van Genuchten(1980). Experimental results were compared with predicted coefficient of permeability and verified applicability of the two equations.

• Fibers and Polymers
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.135-144
• /
• 2003

Permeability of the preform is one of key factors in design of RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) mold, determination of processing conditions, and modeling of flow in the mold. According to previous studies, permeability measured in the unsaturated fiber mats are higher than that in the saturated fiber mats by about 20% because of the capillary pressure. In this study, permeabilities of several fiber preforms are measured for both saturated and unsaturated flows. A saturated experiment of radial flow has been adopted to measure the permeability of anisotropic fiber preforms with high fiber content, i.e., circular braided preforms. In this method, four pressure transducers are used to measure the pressure distribution. Permeabilities in different directions are determined and the experimental results show a good agreement with the theory. Since permeability is affected by the capillary effect, permeability should be measured in the unsaturated condition for the textile composites to be manufactured under lower pressure as in the Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM).

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.57-64
• /
• 2013

In this paper, in order to solve high water content of water sludge and promote its recycle, sludge mixtures with various mixing ratios were produced. Sludge mixture consisted of water sludge and weathered granite soil. Their physical properties and unsaturated characteristics (soil-water characteristic curve, and unsaturated permeability function) were investigated by laboratory tests. Experimental test results indicated that at a given matric suction volumetric water content of sludge mixture increased as water sludge content increased. Air entry values of sludge mixture increased from 0.9 kPa to 2.4 kPa with an increase in water sludge content or fine content. In addition, unsaturated permeability function, which is an important factor for performing infiltration analysis, was predicted using saturated permeability and soil-water characteristic curve of sludge mixture.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.77-87
• /
• 2022

Many geotechnical analyses require the investigation of water flow within partially saturated soil zone to incorporate the effect of climatic conditions. It is widely understood that the hydraulic properties of the partially saturated soil should be included in the transient seepage analyses. However, the characteristics of dual porosity soils with dual-mode water retention curve are normally modelled using single-mode mathematical equation for simplification of the analysis. In reality, the rainwater flow can be affected significantly by the dual-mode hydraulic properties of the soil. This paper presents the variations of safety factor for dual porosity soil slope with dual-mode water retention curve and dual-mode unsaturated permeability. This paper includes the development of the new dual-mode unsaturated permeability to represent the characteristics of soil with the dual-mode water retention curve. The finite element analyses were conducted to examine the role of dual-mode water retention curve and dual-mode unsaturated permeability on the variations of safety factor under rainfall loading. The results indicate that the safety factor variations of dual porosity soil slope modelled using the dual-mode water retention curve and the unsaturated permeability equation are lower than those of dual porosity slope modelled using single-mode water retention curve and unsaturated permeability equations.