Assessment of hydraulic conductivity improvement due to vibration application at riverbank

Abstract

Groundwater abstraction is a process of obtaining subsurface water sources for variety purpose of consumption. However, due to long and continuous pumping, the efficiency might decrease because of soil clogging. This decreased can be quantified and reflected as the change of hydraulic conductivity (K) values at the pumping site. This study aims to assess the variability of soil hydraulic conductivity at groundwater pumping site and also to study the effectiveness of vibration method to improve the hydraulic conductivity by comparing the result of before and after vibration is applied. The study was carried out by measuring the K values using slug test at wells MW01 and MW02 with two durations of vibration which were 45 minutes and 60 minutes. The result shows that values of hydraulic conductivity of the soil were found to have increased for both MW0l and MW02 wells. On first trial, the hydraulic conductivity increases for MW0l and MW02 are 16.7% and 39.3% while on second trial, the percentage increases for MW01 and MW02 are 54.3% and 11.1% respectively. Although the change for MW02 decreased for 60 minutes vibration, it can still be noted as there is a positive impact of vibration to the K value and further extensive data collection will be able to provide better assessment. Thus, it has been proven that the vibration method can be effective in reducing the soil clogging effect and also able to improve the hydraulic conductivity of the soil.