Improved Practices for Determining the Infiltration Characteristics of Soils for Design of Stormwater BMPs
-
2022-03-01
Details:
-
Creators:
-
Corporate Creators:
-
Corporate Contributors:
-
Subject/TRT Terms:
-
Publication/ Report Number:
-
Resource Type:
-
Geographical Coverage:
-
Edition:Final report
-
Corporate Publisher:
-
Abstract:There are currently several in situ and laboratory methods of determining hydraulic conductivity of soils, however, it remains a difficult parameter to obtain accurately and economically. To characterize hydraulic conductivity for the design of stormwater best management practices (BMP’s), the New Hampshire Department of Transportation currently uses a traditional field test, the borehole infiltration testing. The interpretation method of this test uses general assumptions and lacks vigorous analysis due to its development in the 1950’s. The proposed solution to these issues is to use a Permeafor, an instrument originally developed in France to measure horizontal hydraulic conductivity in situ. This property is determined by means of flowing water into the soil at any given depth, then obtained through the relation of applied hydraulic head and resulting flow. The tool has been designed, built, and tested at the University of New Hampshire. Using knowledge acquired during preliminary testing, several modifications in the testing procedure have been made, simplifying, and improving the method as well as the equipment used. The tool has been used extensively on 7 different sites across New Hampshire where the soil varied in characterization from coarse to silty sands. The results from more than 120 field tests demonstrated the potential of the Permeafor to rapidly hydraulically characterize soils at different depths to generate profiles of hydraulic conductivity. The Permeator is a useful tool in bridging the gap between time consuming testing at few locations and efficient broad scale permeability testing.
-
Format:
-
Funding:
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type: