Evaluation of the hydraulic conductivity of aquifers with pilesEvaluation de la conductivité hydrauliques des aquifères avec des pieuxEvaluación de la conductividad hidráulica en acuíferos con pilotes桩基础含水层的渗流系数评价Avaliação da condutividade hidráulica dos aquíferos com estacas

Distributed piles are often installed in the foundation pit in sandy soil before dewatering. Hydraulic conductivity should be estimated considering the block effect of piles on groundwater seepage. Research shows that the effective medium theory (EMT) could be used to calculate the equivalent hydraulic conductivity (keq) of a heterogeneous medium with other material inclusions. In order to verify the applicability of EMT in an aquifer with piles, an experimental investigation is conducted. In this experiment, a sandy soil is considered as an aquifer and polyvinylchloride pipes are adopted as piles. Piles are distributed in rectangular and triangular layouts. The relationship between keq of the aquifer and the volume replacement ratio is plotted for these two layouts. The results indicate that EMT could well predict keq for the cases with the rectangular layout; however, for triangular layouts, the prediction becomes poor. To provide a better prediction of keq of the aquifer with piles distributed in a triangular layout, a modified EMT (MEMT) is proposed, in which a correction factor is adopted considering different layouts of piles. The MEMT can provide better keq predictions for an aquifer with piles in the triangular layout pattern than those obtained using the EMT.