Guide Questions:

1. Define the total head in terms of water pressure,

elevation, and unit weight of water. What is the physical

meaning of total head?

The total head, in terms of water pressure, is the

sum of the pressure head and the elevation head. The
total head is the vertical distance expression of the
total pressure of a fluid.

2. Why do we use the hydrostatic definition of total

head instead of the Bernoulli definition of total head?

The hydrostatic definition of total head is

primarily used instead of Bernoulli’s because in the
hydrostatic definition the total head is absolute, but in
Bernoulli’s definition there is an additional head.
Water is at its static state in the hydrostatic while in
Bernoulli’s there is movement.

3. Why do we neglect the term v2/2g in defining the total

head in soil? ( v is the fluid velocity and g is the earth

gravity). Justify your answer with numbers.

 The term v2/2g is neglected in defining the total
head in soil because its value is so small (less than 1 m/s)
that it can already be disregarded.

4. Define soil permeability. What are the dimensions

and units of permeability?

Soil permeability is the property of soil that

permits water or air to pass through it. Its unit is cm /
sec.

5. Does the permeability increase or decrease with

temperature?

The permeability increases with the increase in

temperature.

6. Name two laboratory tests used for determining soil

permeability. For which types of soils are they used?

Two laboratory tests are frequently used to

determine the permeability of soil: the constant head
method which is used for coarse grained soils and the
falling head method which is used for fine grained
soils.
7. Is the fluid velocity larger or smaller than the

discharge velocity? What is the relationship between

these velocities?

The fluid velocity is larger than the discharge

velocity and they are directly proportional to each
other.

8. Derive the expression for permeability for a falling

head test.
9. What is a typical range of permeability for gravel,

silts, and clays?

Typical Range of Permeability:

Gravels: greater than 10-1 cm/s; High permeability

Sands: 10-1 to 10-5 cm/s; Medium permeability

Silts: 10-5 to 10-7 cm/s; Low permeability

Clay: less than 10-7 cm/s; practically impermeable

Discussion

Permeability is a measure of the ease in which

water can flow through a soil volume. Several different

methods for determining the coefficient of

permeability for soils exist, including in-situ methods

and laboratory methods. In the laboratory, two

common tests are generally used to determine this soil

property. These two tests are the falling head

permeability test and the constant head permeability

test.

Constant Head Permeability Test is performed on

sands and gravel as the pore openings are large and

consequently high permeability. Falling-head

Permeability Test is performed on silts and clays as the

pore openings are small and thus low permeability. The

falling-head method is totally different from the

constant head methods in its initial setup; still, the

advantage to the falling-head method is that it can be

used for both fine-grained and coarse-grained soils.

There are various applications of falling head

permeability experiments. Falling Head Permeability

tests are used to determine the settlements in

structures, extensively used in planning the methods for

lowering the ground water table during construction,

used in designing grouting pressures and quantities for

soil stabilization, used widely in freeze thaw

movements in soils and it has vast applications in the

design of recharge pits. This is important in examining

the movement of contaminants through soil or when

characterizing flow nets.

Thus, the study of seepage of water through soil is

very important, with wide field applications. The

falling head method of determining permeability is

used for soil with low discharge, where as the constant

head permeability test is used for coarse-grained soils

with a reasonable discharge in each time. For very fine-

grained soil, capillarity permeability test is

suggested.
Conclusion

This experiment which is the Falling Head Method

is intended for determining the coefficient of

permeability of fine grained soils. The falling head

permeability test is a common laboratory testing

method used to determine the permeability of fine

grained soils with intermediate and low permeability

such as silts and clays.

It can be seen in our data that as the cross-

sectional area of the soil specimen decreases with the

increase of the coefficient of permeability. It was also

established that the total time required for the

quantity to be discharged during the test were

inversely proportional to the coefficient of

permeability. Furthermore, the cross-sectional area of

the standpipe and the length of the specimen was

found to be directly proportional to the coefficient of

permeability.
 The measure of the value of the coefficient that

can be obtained in falling head permeability test

should be less than 10-3 cm/s. In the two trials that we

performed the coefficient of permeability that we

acquired were 0.00256 cm/sec and 0.002178 cm/sec

respectively. The average coefficient of permeability

we obtained 0.002369cm/sec.