EAS 44600 Groundwater Hydrology

Lecture 6: Darcys Law and Hydraulic Conductivity

Dr. Pengfei Zhang
Darcys Law
We discussed Darcys experiment in last lecture and now let us go back to Darcys law:

h h
dh
Q = KA a b = KA
L
dl

(6-1)

The quantity dh represents the change in head with distance, dl. The negative sign is a
convention such that the direction of flow is toward lower hydraulic head. The essence of
groundwater flow is that groundwater moves from areas of higher hydraulic head to areas of
lower hydraulic head. However, this says nothing about the rate of flow. The rate of flow is
controlled by the hydraulic conductivity of the subsurface.
Hydraulic conductivity has units of length per time (L/T). It represents both the properties of the
porous medium as wells as the properties of the fluid flowing through the porous medium. It is
obvious that a viscous fluid like motor oil would move more slowly through a sand than would
water. To separate the properties of the porous medium from the properties of the fluid, a new
parameter is introduced to represent the size and interconnectedness of the pores in the porous
medium. This parameter is called intrinsic permeability, ki, which has the units of length
squared (L2).
Using the intrinsic permeability, we can put the hydraulic conductivity in terms of the
permeability:
g

K = ki

(6-2)

where is the density, and is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid phase. Intrinsic permeability
is often expressed in square centimeters, or in darcys. A darcy is 9.8710-9 cm2. Ranges of
intrinsic permeabilities and hydraulic conductivities for various sediments are listed in Table 6-1
below.
Table 6-1. Intrinsic permeabilities and hydraulic conductivities for unconsolidated sediments.
Material
Clay
Silt, sandy silts, clayey sands, till
Silty sands, fine sands
Well-sorted sands, glacial outwash
Well-sorted gravel

Intrinsic Permeability
(darcys)
10-6 10-3
10-3 10-1
10-2 100
100 102
101 103

6-1

Hydraulic Conductivity
(cm/s)
10-9 10-6
10-6 10-4
10-5 10-3
10-3 10-1
10-2 100

Measuring Hydraulic Conductivity

You will measure the hydraulic conductivity of various porous media using a permeameter. A
permeameter is a simple column with an inlet and outlet (Figure 6-1). If the inlet has a higher
hydraulic head relative to the outlet, the flow will be from the inlet to the outlet. The discharge
will be proportional to the difference in hydraulic head between the inlet and outlet (which
normalized to the length of the sample as dh/dl), as well as the hydraulic conductivity (K) of the
porous media.

Figure 6-1. Constant-head permeameter apparatus (Fetter).

For media of relatively high hydraulic conductivity (e.g., medium to coarse sand), a constanthead method is used to determine the hydraulic conductivity. Water is continuously added to the
reservoir to keep the water level constant, and the flow from the outlet of the permeameter is
collected over time (Figure 6-1). Applying Darcys law (equation 6-1) and multiplying both
sides of equation 6-1 by time, t, we have:
h hb
Qt = KA a
t
L

(6-3)

Substituting V for Qt and h for -(ha-hb) and rearranging, we obtain:

K=

VL
Ath

(6-4)

where V is the volume of water collected at the outlet at time t, L is the length of the sample, A is
the cross-sectional area of the sample, h is the hydraulic head, and K is the hydraulic
conductivity (Figure 6-1).

6-2

For media of relatively low hydraulic conductivity, the fluid discharge from the system is small.
In this case, it is easier to perform a falling head measurement, as shown in Figure 6-2 below.

Figure 6-2. Falling-head permeameter apparatus (Fetter).

To calculate hydraulic conductivity in falling-head method, a mass balance approach is taken.
Note that the rate of water discharges from the tube into the permeameter is equal to the product
of the area of the tube and the rate of fluid movement through the tube:

Qtube = Atube

dh
dt

(6-5)

where dh/dt is the rate of fluid movement through the tube, which is also the rate of movement of
the air water interface through the tube, which is also the rate of change in the hydraulic head
driving the flow into the permeameter.
On the other hand, the rate at which water discharges from the permeameter is given by:

h
Q perm = KAperm
L

(6-6)

where h refers to the difference in hydraulic head at the inlet and the outlet, and L is the length of
the sample (Figure 6-2). Notice that h decreases with time, hence the flow also decreases with
time.
At any one instant, the flow entering the permeameter must equal the flow leaving the
permeameter, hence:

6-3

 Atube

dh
h
= KA perm
dt
L

(6-7)

rearranging:

Kdt =

Atube dh
L
Aperm h

(6-8)

integrating from time zero to time t, during which the head decreases from ho to h
t

Kdt =
0

dh
Atube
L
Aperm ho h

(6-9)

gives:
Kt =

Atube
h
L ln
ho
Aperm

(6-10)

rearranging:
K=

Atube L ho
ln
Aperm t h

(6-11)

Since the cross-sectional areas are proportional to the square of the diameters of the falling head
tube, dtube, and the permeameter, dperm, equation 6-11 can be further simplified to:

K=

2
d tube
L ho
ln
2
d perm t h

(6-12)

where K is the hydraulic conductivity, L is the sample length, ho is the initial head in the falling
tube, h is the final head in the falling tube, t the time that it takes for the head to drop from ho to
h, dtube is the diameter of the falling tube, and dperm is the inside diameter of the permeameter.
So, if you measure the drop in head over a given length of time, you can back out the hydraulic
conductivity (and so you will)!

6-4