MECHANICS

RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Mechanics Research Communications 33 (2006) 568–575

www.elsevier.com/locate/mechrescom

Influence of the presence of a partially saturated layer

on the interpretation in field permeability tests
a,* b,1
Zoubeir Lafhaj , Isam Shahrour
a
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille (CNRS UMR 8107), Ecole Centrale de Lille, BP: 48, cité scientifique,
Villeneuve d’Ascq 59651 cedex, France
b
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille (CNRS URA 8107), Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille (Polytech’Lille),
cité scientifique, Villeneuve d’Ascq 59655 cedex, France

Available online 10 March 2005

Abstract

This paper concerns the determination of the soil permeability from water tests performed in the proximity of a par-
tially saturated layer. The objective of the study is the determination of the influence of the presence of a partially sat-
urated zone on the shape factor. The latter is a key parameter for the interpretation of soil permeability from in situ
tests. The paper is composed of three parts. The first part describes the water test generally used in the measurement
of the permeability in saturated soils, and we discuss difficulties of its use in the presence of unsaturated soils. The sec-
ond part includes the numerical model used to study the flow of water in partially saturated soils. The last part involves
a study of the influence of the presence of a partially saturated soil on the interpretation of the water test.
Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: FEM; In situ; Permeability; Shape factor; Unsaturated soil; Water test

1. Introduction

The resolution of geotechnical and environmental problems generally requires the determination of the
soil permeability. In order to overcome difficulties relative to soil disturbance and heterogeneity, soil per-
meability is determined from water tests. Analysis of these tests is usually carried out under ideal assump-
tions which suppose that the soil is saturated, isotropic and homogeneous. However, in particular
applications, engineers are confronted with the measurement of the soil permeability in the presence of

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 3 20 33 53 65; fax: +33 3 20 33 53 52.
E-mail addresses: Zoubeir.lafhaj@ec-lille.fr (Z. Lafhaj), Isam.Shahrour@polytech-lille.fr (I. Shahrour).
1
Tel.: +33 3 28 76 74 93; fax: +33 3 28 76 73 11.

0093-6413/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mechrescom.2005.02.021
 Z. Lafhaj, I. Shahrour / Mechanics Research Communications 33 (2006) 568–575 569

partially saturated soils. In this case, the hydrodynamic behavior of the partially saturated soil has to be
considered.
Several studies were carried out to determine the permeability of unsaturated soil. Glover (1953),
Nasberg (1953) and Terletskaya (1954) studied analytically the infiltration of water through a spherical cav-
ity placed in a partially saturated medium where a relation between the flow rate and the hydraulic potential
was assumed. Cassan (1980) generalized these studies to the cylindrical cavities and proposed an approx-
imate solution between the flow rate and the hydraulic potential to measure the soil permeability.
In recent years other studies (experimental and numerical) have been carried out. Generally, a constant
head test was used to evaluate the permeability. These studies were focused on the determination of the
shape factor which is necessary for the determination of the permeability. Several solutions were proposed
(Philip, 1968, 1985; Reynolds and Elrick, 1983; Reynolds et al., 1985; Wösten and Van Genuchten, 1988;
Shan and Stephens, 1993; Xiang and Chen, 1997). The investigations of these solutions showed a scatter
between the proposed values, which is due to opposite assumptions, such as neglecting or considering cap-
illary or gravitation effects, taken by each author (Cassiani, 1998).
The objective of this paper is to study the use of the constant head test for the determination of the soil
permeability when the field test is carried out near an unsaturated zone.
The originality of this study consists in the numerical modeling used to simulate the infiltration of water
from a cavity and the parametric analysis which permitted to capture the influence of the presence of an
unsaturated zone on the determination of the permeability.

2. Constant head test

The constant head test is widely used for the determination of soil permeability from field tests. It is
based upon the measurement of the evolution of the hydraulic potential in a drilled borehole. In Fig. 1,
the notation and the configuration of this test are presented. The interpretation of the test is carried out
according to the Hvorslev equation (1951):

Ns

Zn
Water table

Cavity
D/ 2
Z Zs

Re

Fig. 1. The constant head test: notation and configuration.

570 Z. Lafhaj, I. Shahrour / Mechanics Research Communications 33 (2006) 568–575

k ¼ Q=ðmDH Þ ð1Þ
where k is soil permeability, Q denotes the flow rate through the borehole, H is the hydraulic potential in
the borehole with regard to the water table in the soil massif; m is the shape factor, which characterises the
interaction between the cavity and the soil massif.
The expression of this factor for cylindrical cavities is due to Hvorslev (1951):
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
m ¼ 2pðL=DÞ=Ln½ðL=DÞ þ ðL=DÞ2 þ 1 ð2Þ
L and D indicate respectively the length and the diameter of the infiltration cavity.
This expression results from the resolution of the Laplace equation in homogenous, saturated and infi-
nite domain for an ellipsoidal cavity. The determination of the shape factor for cylindrical cavities was
investigated using the finite difference method and experimental method (Wilkinson, 1968; Al-Dhahir
and Morgenstern, 1969; Raymond and Azzouz, 1969; Brand and Premchitt, 1980; Lafhaj and Shahrour,
2002), the finite element method (Randolph and Booker, 1982; Tavenas et al., 1986) and recently the
boundary element method was used (Lafhaj and Shahrour, 2000a,b).

3. Flow in partially saturated soils: numerical model

Flow of water in a partially saturated soil is governed by the following equation (Richards, 1931):
oh oh
divðkðwÞgradðhÞÞ ¼ ð3Þ
ow ot
C(w) = oh/ow represents the specific moisture capacity
where k is the hydraulic conductivity and h is the hydraulic head. W and h denote respectively the suction
and the volumetric water content.
For partially saturated soils, the permeability can be expressed as follows:
k ¼ k s k r ðwÞ
where ks and kr denote respectively the permeability of saturated soils and the relative permeability. The
latter depends on suction (w). For this study, the Mualem expression for the relative permeability (Mualem,
1976) was chosen:
mn n m 2
½1  ðawÞ ð1 þ ðawÞ Þ 
k r ðwÞ ¼ n m=2
w>0
½1 þ ðawÞ  ð4Þ
k r ðwÞ ¼ 1 w60

and the retention curve, which gives the relation between the water content and the suction proposed by
Van Genuchten (1980):
n m
hðwÞ ¼ hr þ ðhs  hr Þð1 þ ðawÞ Þ w>0
hðwÞ ¼ hs w60
hr is the residual saturation, hs is the saturation moisture content. Table 1 gives values of parameters of this
model for main soils (Rawls et al., 1982).
This model was introduced into the finite element program PECPLAS (Shahrour, 1992). Resolution is
carried out using an implicit scheme coupled with an iterative procedure. At each step, both the mass and
stiffness matrix are updated. An iterative method is used to take into consideration the variation of the
hydrodynamic properties of soil during this stage. The program was validated on several examples found
in literature (Thony and Vauclin, 1986; Thony et al., 1991; Vauclin, 1975; Van Genuchten and Leij, 1989).
 Z. Lafhaj, I. Shahrour / Mechanics Research Communications 33 (2006) 568–575 571

Table 1
Parameters of the van Genuchtern–Mualem model for main soils (Rawls et al., 1982)
ks a
hr hs m=s m1
n
Sand 0.02 0.417 5.83E-5 13.8 1.592
Silty sand 0.109 0.321 3.33E-7 3.4 1.168
Clay 0.09 0.385 1.66E-7 2.7 1.131

4. Analysis of field tests

This section includes analysis of the constant head test when it is conducted in the proximity of partially
saturated soils. We present successively the numerical modeling of the water flow through the cavity, a
study of a reference case, and a parametric analysis which covers the influence on the shape factor of both
hydrodynamic and geometrical properties of the partially saturated zone.

4.1. Numerical modeling

Fig. 1 shows the configuration under consideration. The infiltration cavity is in the saturated part of the
soil mass. The water table and the impervious substratum are located respectively at distances (Zn + L/2)
and (Zs + L/2) from the cavity centre. The height of the partially saturated layer is Ns. Calculation is per-
formed under axisymmetric conditions. The lateral impervious boundary is placed at a distance Re from
the axis of the cavity.
A hydraulic potential (h = H0, with reference to the water table) is applied in the infiltration cavity. A
step by step calculation permits to follow the water flow through the cavity. At each step, the hydraulic
potential in the cavity is updated in order to take into consideration the variation of the water level in
the cavity.

4.2. Reference example

The reference example concerns a cavity adjacent to the partially saturated layer (Zn = 0) with the fol-
lowing geometrical characteristics: length L = 1 m, diameter D = 0.12 m, thickness of the partially satu-
rated and saturated layers Ns = 15.8D and Zs = 6D, lateral boundary at a distance Re = 30D from the
axis of the cavity. The hydrodynamic properties of the sand are given in Table 1 and Fig. 2a and b. The

120 1.2

100 1

80 0.8
Ψ (cm)

kr

60 0.6

40 0.4

20 0.2

0 0
0.07 0.14 0.21 0.28 0.35 0.144 0.216 0.288 0.36 0.432
(a) θ (b) θ

Fig. 2. Properties of the soil used in the reference case (sand, Table 1). (a) Retention curve and (b) relative permeability.
572 Z. Lafhaj, I. Shahrour / Mechanics Research Communications 33 (2006) 568–575

2 4

3.5

1.5 3

-Ln ( H / H0)
2.5
H0
H0 (m)

1 2

1.5

0.5 1

0.5

0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
(a) kDt/S (b) kDt/S

Fig. 3. Reference case. (a) Evolution of the hydraulic potential in the cavity (H), (b) variation of log(H/H0) with T.

initial level of the water column in the cavity is supposed to be equal to H0 = 2 m (16.7D). Calculation is
carried out with a mesh composed of 2044 isoparametric 8-node elements.
Fig. 3a shows the variation of the hydraulic potential H in the cavity with the adimensional time param-
eter T (T = t kD/S). It can be observed that H decreases until stabilization, which corresponds to the equal-
ity between the height of water in the borehole and in the soil mass (H = 0). Fig. 3b illustrates the evolution
of the logarithm of the hydraulic potential with T. We note that this evolution is linear over the major part
of the curve. The slope of the linear part of this curve is equal to mus = 22.8. For saturated soils, this slope is
equal to the shape factor (Eq. (1)). So, in order to illustrate the influence of the presence of the partially
saturated layer on this factor, a finite element calculation was performed to determine the shape factor con-
sidering only the saturated zone (the presence of the partially saturated layer was neglected). This calcula-
tion gives ms = 28.1, which is about 23% higher than that obtained with the partially saturated layer.

4.3. Parametric study

A parametric analysis was carried out to study the influence of the thickness and position of the partially
saturated layer on the shape factor. Numerical simulations were performed with different values of Zn and

2
4
Hydraulic load in cavity H0 (m)

3.5
Zn/D = 10.8
1.5 Zn+Zs = 15.8D 3 Zn/D = 5.8
2.5
- Ln( H/ H0)

Zn/D = 10.8
1 2
Zn/D = 5.8
1.5
Zn/D = 0.8
0.5 1 Zn/D = 0.8
Zn/D = 0
0.5 Zn/D = 0

0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
(a) kDt /S (b) kDt/S

Fig. 4. Influence of the position of a partially saturated layer on water flow (sand). (a) Evolution of the hydraulic potential in the
cavity, (b) variation of log(H/H0) with (T).
 Z. Lafhaj, I. Shahrour / Mechanics Research Communications 33 (2006) 568–575 573

3.5 1.4

Zn/D = 10.8 1.2 Zn/D = 10.8

3 Zn/D = 5.8 Zn/D = 5.8
Zn/D = 0.8 1 Zn/D = 0.8
2.5 Zn/D = 0 Zn/D = 0

- Ln( H/H0 )
0.8
H0 (m)

2 Zn+Zs = 15.8D
0.6
1.5
0.4

1 0.2

0.5 0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.0 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.0
(a) kDt/S (b) kDt/S

Fig. 5. Influence of the position of a partially saturated layer on water flow (clay). (a) Evolution of the hydraulic potential, (b)
variation of log(H/H0) with adimensional time T.

0.95

0.9
mus/ms

0.85 Sand

Clay
0.8

0.75
0 2 4 6 8 10
Zn/D

Fig. 6. Evolution of ratio mus/ms with the distance between the cavity and the water table.

Zs ((0, 15.8D), (0.8D, 15D), (5.8D, 10D) and (10.8D, 5D)). Calculations were carried out with sand and clay
with the properties reported in Table 1. Figs. 4 and 5 present respectively results obtained with sand and
clay. It can be observed that the hydraulic potential decreases until stabilisation. The rate of decrease de-
pends on the position of the water table with regard to the cavity. It increases when the water table becomes
closer to the cavity. Figs. 4b and 5b show results obtained in the plane (log(H), T). We observe a linear
variation during the major part of the water flow. Calculation of the slope of the linear part permits the
determination of the pseudo shape factor (mus). Fig. 6 illustrates the variation of the ratio mus/ms (shape
factor with the partially saturated layer/shape factor without the partially saturated layer) with the distance
between the cavity and the partially saturated layer Zn. It can be observed that, in the case of a sandy soil,
the ratio mus/ms increases from 0.8 to 1.0 when the distance Zn increases from 0 to 10.8D.
With clay, the ratio mus/ms increases from 0.75 to 0.95 when Zn increases from 0 to 10.8D. This means
that the presence of a partially saturated layer induces a reduction of about 20% of the shape factor when
the layer is close to the cavity, but has a negligible influence when the cavity is located at a distance superior
to 6D from the water table.
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5. Conclusion

This paper included a study of the influence of the presence of a partially saturated layer on the deter-
mination of the soil permeability using water borehole tests. The study was carried out using the
Mualem–Genuchten model for water flow in partially saturated soils. It showed that the presence of a par-
tially saturated layer close to the infiltration cavity (distance cavity—unsaturated layer less than 2D, D de-
notes the diameter of the borehole) leads to a reduction of about 20% in the shape factor, but this presence
can be neglected when the cavity is located at a distance greater than 6D from the water table. It also
showed that the determination of the soil permeability from field tests in unsaturated zones raises major
difficulties which are mainly due to the complexity of the water flow in unsaturated soils and the lack of
experimental data. Both experimental and numerical studies are still required for the establishment of a reli-
able procedure for the determination of the soil permeability in unsaturated areas.

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