Tikrit University

FLUID FLW IN SOIL College of Engineering

Soil
Mechanics
3rd Class
Lecture notes
Up Copyrights 2016
One Dimensional Flow
Soil is a three phase medium -------- solids, water, and air
* Water in soils occur in various conditions
* Water can flow through the voids in a soil from a point of
high energy to a point of low energy.
* Why studying flow of water in porous media ???????
1- To estimate the quantity of underground seepage
2- To determine the quantity of water that can be
discharged form a soil
3- To determine the pore water pressure/effective geostatic
stresses, and to analyze earth structures subjected to
water flow.
4- To determine the volume change in soil layers (soil
consolidation) and settlement of foundation.

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 2
One Dimensional Flow
* Flow of Water in Soils depends on:
1- Porosity of the soil
2- Type of the soil - particle size - particle shape -
degree of packing
3- Viscosity of the fluid – Temperature - Chemical
Components
4- Total head (difference in energy) - Pressure head -
Velocity head

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 3
One Dimensional Flow
- Elevation head
The degree of compressibility of a soil is expressed by
the coefficient of permeability of the soil "k.“
k cm/sec, ft/sec, m/sec, ........
Hydraulic Gradient
Bernouli's Equation

For soil

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 4
One Dimensional Flow
Flow of Water in Soils
1- Hydraulic Head in Soil
Total Head = Pressure head + Elevation Head
ht = hp + he
- Elevation head at a point = Extent of that point
from the datum
- Pressure head at a point = Height of which the
water rises in the piezometer above the point.
- Pore Water pressure at a point = P.W.P. = gwater . hp

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 5
One Dimensional Flow

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 6
One Dimensional Flow
*How to measure the Pressure Head or the Piezometric
Head???????
Tips
1- Assume that you do not have seepage in the system
(Before Seepage)
2- Assume that you have piezometer at the point under
consideration
3- Get the measurement of the piezometric head (Water
column in the Piezometer before seepage) = hp(Before
Seepage)
4- Now consider the problem during seepage
5- Measure the amount of the head loss in the piezometer
(Dh) or the drop in the piezometric head.
6- The piezometric head during seepage = hp(during
seepage) = hp(Before Seepage) - Dh

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 7
One Dimensional Flow

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 8
One Dimensional Flow
Pressure, Elevation and Total
Heads
In soils, the interconnected
pores provide passage for
water. A large number of such
flow paths act together, and
the average rate of flow is
termed the coefficient of
permeability, or just
permeability. It is a measure
of the ease that the soil
provides to the flow of water
through its pores.

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 9
One Dimensional Flow
At point A, the pore water pressure (u) can be
measured from the height of water in a
standpipe located at that point.
The height of the water column is the pressure
head (hw).
hw = u/gw
To identify any difference in pore water pressure at
different points, it is necessary to eliminate the
effect of the points of measurement. With this in
view, a datum is required from which locations
are measured.

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 10
One Dimensional Flow

The elevation head

(hz) of any point is its height above the datum line.
The height of water level in the standpipe above the
datum is the piezometric head (h).

h = hz + hw

Total head consists of three components: elevation
head, pressure head, and velocity head. As seepage
velocity in soils is normally low, velocity head is ignored,
and total head becomes equal to the piezometric head.
Due to the low seepage velocity and small size of pores,
the flow of water in the pores is steady and laminar in
most cases. Water flow takes place between two points
in soil due to the difference in total heads.

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 11
One Dimensional Flow
Darcy's Law
Darcy's law states that there is a linear
relationship between flow velocity (v) and
hydraulic gradient (i) for any given saturated soil
under steady laminar flow conditions.

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 12
One Dimensional Flow
If the rate of flow is q (volume/time) through cross-
sectional area (A) of the soil mass, Darcy's Law
can be expressed as
v = q/A = k.i
where
k = permeability of the soil
i = Dh/L
‘Dh = difference in total heads
L = length of the soil mass

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 13
One Dimensional Flow
The flow velocity (v) is also called the Darcian
velocity or the superficial velocity. It is different
from the actual velocity inside the soil pores,
which is known as the seepage velocity, vS. At the
particulate level, the water follows a tortuous
path through the pores. Seepage velocity is
always greater than the superficial velocity, and
it is expressed as:

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 14
One Dimensional Flow
Permeability of Different
Soils Permeability (k) is an engineering property of
soils and is a function of the soil type. Its value
depends on the average size of the pores and is
related to the distribution of particle sizes,
particle shape and soil structure. The ratio of
permeabilities of typical sands/gravels to those
of typical clays is of the order of 106. A small
proportion of fine material in a coarse-grained
soil can lead to a significant reduction in
permeability

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 15
One Dimensional Flow
For different soil types as per grain size, the orders of
magnitude for permeability are as follows:

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 16
One Dimensional Flow
Laboratory Measurement of
Permeability
Constant Head Flow
Constant head permeameter is
recommended for coarse-
grained soils only since for such
soils, flow rate is measurable
with adequate precision. As
water flows through a sample
of cross-section area A, steady
total head drop h is measured
across length L.
Permeability k is obtained from:

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 17
One Dimensional Flow
Falling Head Flow Falling head permeameter is
recommended for fine-grained soils.

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 18
One Dimensional Flow
Total head h in standpipe of area a is allowed to fall.
Hydraulic gradient varies with time. Heads h1
and h2 are measured at times t1 and t2. At any
time t, flow through the soil sample of cross-
sectional area A is

Flow in unit time through the standpipe of cross-sectional

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 19
One Dimensional Flow

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 20
One Dimensional Flow
Examples

College of Eng. Civil Eng. Dept Soil Mechanics Dr. Ahmed Al-Obaidi 21