A Simple Field Method for Assessing Near-Surface Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity

This technical note describes an effective and inexpensive field technique for measuring the saturated hydraulic conductivity of both undisturbed cores and repacked soil samples. The method requires no specialized equipment; everything that is required can be obtained in a hardware store. The method is a straightforward field implementation of the widely used falling-head laboratory analysis directly derived from Darcy's law. As such, it sidesteps the need for empirical assumptions about soil texture and the relationship between saturated and unsaturated flow components which many permeameter-based methods rely upon. The method is shown to produce results that are consistent with K values obtained elsewhere in the same homogeneous sand formation. Furthermore, the proposed method is useful for measuring hydraulic conductivity in drill cuttings obtained from direct push or auguring drill techniques, which cannot be done with any other field method. The range of hydraulic conductivity values that this test is appropriate for is on the order of 1E - 7 m/s to 1E - 3 m/s.