## Electronic Theses and Dissertations

1994

Thesis

M.A.Sc.

#### Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Sklash, Michael G.,

#### Keywords

Environmental Sciences.

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

#### Abstract

The main objective of this investigation was to develop a piezometer insertion technique that would give a more representative field-determined hydraulic conductivity. The investigation consisted of both laboratory and field tests. In the laboratory test, laboratory-fractured remolded clay columns were drilled at both room temperature and in a frozen state. The columns were then tested for hydraulic conductivity using a constant head permeability test. This test indicated that drilling the clay when frozen reduced smearing of the clay. The geometric mean of the K values obtained from tests where the clay was drilled at room temperature was 3.8 $\times$ 10$\sp{-5}$ m/sec. The geometric mean of the K values where the clay was frozen before drilling was 2.6 $\times$ 10$\sp{-4}$ m/sec. The increase in K is attributed to reduced smearing of the fracture. In the field tests, 16 piezometers were installed at a field site characterized by fractured clayey soils using the Overcored Shelby-Hole Method (OSHM) of D'Astous et al. (1989). D'Astous et al. (1989) showed that the OSHM method gave field-measured K values that exceeded the field-measured K values for conventionally installed piezometers by one to three orders of magnitude. Another 16 piezometers were installed using a technique developed in this study called the Frigid Insertion Method (Frigin). The Frigin method is a modification of the OSHM in which the clayey soil is frozen in situ as part of the OSHM approach. The K values in all of the piezometers were determined three times using the Hvorslev (1951) method. The Frigin piezometers yielded higher K values than the OSHM piezometers. The geometric means of the K values were 2.0 $\times$ 10$\sp{-6}$ m/sec and 4.8 $\times$ 10$\sp{-6}$ m/sec for the OSHM and Frigin methods, respectively (including outliers). (Abstract shortened by UMI.) Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 33-04, page: 1210. Adviser: Michael G. Sklash. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1994.

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