Effect of Particles Shape on the Hydraulic Conductivity of Stokesian Flow in Granular Materials

The hydraulic conductivity of a granular porous medium depends on parameters such as the porosity, particles shape and fluid viscosity. Although other factors may affect the permeability of the granular matrix, their effects are often insignificant while their measurements are sometimes very difficult. There are many experimental studies on the hydraulic conductivity of granular media suggesting empirical equations for the coefficient of hydraulic conductivity. In most of these equations, factors such as the effective grain size and the void ratio have been focused more than the others. In the present study, the hydraulic conductivity under the same condition for a Stokesian flow has been studied with particles of the same size, but different shape. Here, the shape is mainly referred to the roundness of particles. Results indicated that the hydraulic conductivity of a clean and nearly uniformly graded sand, shows a linear relationship with the percentage of round particles.