Numerical study on effect of depth on vertical drain during consolidation

Preloading time is an important issue for reaching the desirable amount of settlement in each project. Vertical drains have been designed to accelerate the consolidation time, and the time of consolidation is dependent on the length of drains. In this study, the most effective length of vertical drains has been investigated by numerical modeling. Furthermore, the effect of the intervals of the vertical drains and the diameter of the wells have been studied and the results have been compared. The results show that if the length of vertical drain reaches 80% of the depth of a soil layer, there is an inconsequential difference in the time of consolidation.

Keywords:

Vertical drains , time of consolidation , preloading , well length.