Definition
A measure of a material’s ability to transmit a flow across it under given conditions; the flow can be of heat, electricity, magnetism, light, sound and, of especial interest to engineering geology, fluids (water, gas, and oils).
To obtain a measure of conductivity, a defined volume of the material is used, e.g., a disc or column; a volume of shape that has radial symmetry. Imagine a column for the purposes of this measurement; it has three boundaries: one at the top through which the flow of whatever is being measured enters the material, one at the bottom through which whatever is flowing leaves the material, and the sides of the column are its third boundary and for the purposes of this measurement they are controlled so that no flow can cross them; they can be sheathed in some way. The distance between the upper and lower boundaries is (L) in units of length, and the area of each of the upper and lower boundaries is (A) in units of area (British Standard Normative tests...
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References
British Standard Normative tests 22282 Geohydraulic testing (2012) BS EN ISO 22282-Part 1 General rules. BS EN ISO 22282-Part 2 Water permeability tests in a borehole using open systems. BS EN ISO 22282-Part 3 Water pressure tests in rock. BS EN ISO 22282-Part 4 Pumping tests. BS EN ISO 22282-Part 5 Infiltrometer tests. BS EN ISO 22282-Part 6 Water permeability tests in boreholes using closed systems
Darcy H (1856) Les fontaines publiques de la ville de Dijon. Victor Dalmont, Paris, pp 305–311
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de Freitas, M. (2018). Conductivity. In: Bobrowsky, P.T., Marker, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73568-9_66
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