A law of change in permeability coefficient during compression of remolded clays

The difficulty in measuring the permeability of clays with enough accuracy enhances the importance of quantitatively predicting the permeability with simple physical parameters. This study collects 23 groups of data of permeability of remolded clays considering the effect of oedometer consolidation pressure. The investigated clays cover a wide range of liquid limits, varying from 40% to 300%. Based on the data of permeability, it is found that the logarithm of permeability coefficient changes with the void ratio in the exponential form, other than in the linear relationship, especially when the volumetric strain reaches the level of 20%. The controlling factors of the permeability coefficient of clays are analysed by multiple regression analysis. A simple method is also proposed for predicting the permeability coefficient, which can be applied to remolded clays with wide ranges of liquid limit and void ratio.