Hydraulic conductivity of remolded fine-grained soils versus index properties A. SRIDHARAN 1, $ and H. B. NAGARAJ 2 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India; e-mail: asuri@civil.iisc.ernet.in 2 BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore 560 019, India (Received 3 April 2003; revised 14 October 2003; accepted 28 October 2003) Abstract. Hydraulic conductivity is a dominant parameter in the design of engineered waste disposal facilities such as landfill liners and covers, lagoon liners and slurry walls. It is of inter- est to a geotechnical or geo-environmental engineer to develop a predictive method of deter- mining the hydraulic conductivity of fine-grained soils, in order to assess its suitability as a liner material. To predict the hydraulic conductivity of soils, researchers and geotechnical engineers have attempted to correlate it with index properties of the soils, such as the liquid limit, void ratio and specific surface. Based on the present study a predictive method has been developed in this paper to predict the hydraulic conductivity in terms of void ratio and shrink- age index (Liquid limit – shrinkage limit) for remoulded fine-grained soils. Though the initial conditions for the soil will affect the hydraulic conductivity behaviour to some extent, both the void ratio and soil characteristics are primary factors in affecting the hydraulic conductivity. Therefore for predictive purpose, the study of hydraulic conductivity behaviour of remoulded fine-grained soils as presented in this paper can be found to be useful for compacted soils also. Key words. clays, drainage, hydraulic conductivity, laboratory tests, permeability. 1. Introduction Hydraulic conductivity is one of the important basic engineering properties of soils. It governs such engineering problems as the ground water regime in stratified depos- its, or near natural and excavated slopes, the flow of fluids through or around engineered structures, the consolidation of clay foundations under applied loads, or the migration of pollutants from waste disposal facilities (Tavenas et al., 1983). With increased industrialization and urbanization, the production of wastes has increased to a great extent. Disposal of wastes in an acceptable manner has been of growing concern to the public the world over. One of the most significant concerns has been the possible contamination of ground water by leachates generated by wastes. This leads to a change in the pore medium chemistry of the surrounding soil. The practice of containing contaminants in shallow land waste disposal facilities and the need to protect ground water against potential contamination have led to $ Corresponding author. Geotechnical and Geological Engineering (2005) 23: 43–60 # Springer 2005