title: Characterization of subsoil heterogeneity, estimation of grain size distribution and hydraulic conductivity at the Krauthausen test site using Cone Penetration Test.
abstract: A Cone Penetration Test (CPT) survey with a high spatial resolution was performed in order to investigate the stratigraphy as well as the spatial variability of various soil properties of the Krauthausen test site. Analyses of the CPT measurements showed the subsurface to be dominated by a planar layered structure. Variogram analysis of the various CPT parameters disclosed that within each layer the soil properties have an anisotropic spatial correlation structure. A correlation analysis of the measured CPT data and co-located grain size distributions from soil samples was performed. Since the correlation coefficients were greater equal to 0.7, a reliable empirical relationship between the data sets could be developed. Based on this empirical relationship grain size distributions were estimated at CPT locations. The statistical processing of estimated and measured grain size distributions with respect to their spatial correlation structure disclosed good agreement between the data sets. The estimated grain size distributions from CPT data were used to estimate the hydraulic conductivity in the aquifer. The results provide detailed information of the spatial heterogeneity of the hydraulic conductivity at Krauthausen test site. The validation of these results, using a prior investigation of hydraulic conductivity statistics, suggests the CPT a fast and inexpensive tool for the estimation of three dimensional hydraulic conductivity fields with sufficient accuracy.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Dynamics and Chemistry of the Geosphere, ICG-IV, Agrosphere, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany. a.tillmann@angewandte-geophysik.de
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tillmann
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Englert
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Nyari
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fejes
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vanderborght
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vereecken
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000032:analysis; D005858:Germany; D010316:Particle Size; D012987:Soil / Q000032:analysis*; D014872:Water Movements
chemical_list: D012987:Soil