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Correlation between Laboratory and Field Permeability Test of Soils in Khartoum New International Airport Area

(university of khartoum, 2011-12) Elarabi, Hussein ; Elfaki, Ahmed

It is well known that Permeability affects the performance of a structure by percolation of water, through the interconnected voids of soil pavement. It causes a number of soil engineering problems such as settlement of buildings, yield of wells, seepage through and below the earth structures. In this paper, laboratory and field permeability tests, based on the principles of falling head test, were conducted on different boreholes in Khartoum New International Airport (KNIA), to study the correlation between the laboratory and the field permeability values. The main objective was to assess whether the field permeability values could be estimated from laboratory permeability values or any other physical properties deduced in the laboratory. The results show that there was a significant difference between the laboratory permeability measured in the lab and the field permeability values. The reason behind this discrepancy was further investigated and explained in the study. Nevertheless, there was a very good correlation between the laboratory permeability (KL), and the ratio field/laboratory permeability (Kf/KL). Also there was a good relationship between field permeability values and some parameters estimated from laboratory and field test.