Predicting the saturated hydraulic conductivity of soils: a review

This paper examines and assesses predictive methods for the saturated hydraulic conductivity of soils. The soil definition is that of engineering. It is not that of soil science and agriculture, which corresponds to “top soil” in engineering. Most predictive methods were calibrated using laboratory permeability tests performed on either disturbed or intact specimens for which the test conditions were either measured or supposed to be known. The quality of predictive equations depends highly on the test quality. Without examining all the quality issues, the paper explains the 14 most important mistakes for tests in rigid-wall or flexible-wall permeameters. Then, it briefly presents 45 predictive methods, and in detail, those with some potential, such as the Kozeny-Carman equation. Afterwards, the data of hundreds of excellent quality tests, with none of the 14 mistakes, are used to assess the predictive methods with a potential. The relative performance of those methods is evaluated and presented in graphs. Three methods are found to work fairly well for non-plastic soils, two for plastic soils without fissures, and one for compacted plastic soils used for liners and covers. The paper discusses the effects of temperature and intrinsic anisotropy within the specimen, but not larger scale anisotropy within aquifers and aquitards.