COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BROUKOU AND KPASSIDÈ (TOGO) CLAY SOILS PERMEABILITY COEFFICIENT MEASURED FROM PORCHET AND VARIABLE LOAD PERMEAMETER TESTS

Soil hydraulic conductivity is a geotechnical parameter commonly used in civil engineering works. It is necessary when designing an underground drainage system. There are two main approaches for determining and interpreting this parameter: in situ tests (example of the Porchet test) and laboratory tests (permeameter test). However, the results obtained through these two methods are generally not identical. The purpose of this work is to assess the permeability coefficient of Broukou and Kpassidè clay soils (two (2) localities in northern Togo), using the Porchet test and the variable load permeameter test. It turns out that the Porchet method on clay soils gives permeability results of the order of 102 times higher than those obtained with the variable load permeameter test carried out in laboratory.