Prefabricated Vertical Drains (Pvd)

PREFABRICATED VERTICAL DRAINS (PVD)

GENERAL The consolidation settlement of soft clay subsoil creates a lot of problems in foundation and infrastructure engineering. Because of the very low clay permeability, permeability, the primary consolidation consoli dation takes a long time to complete. To To shorten this consolidation time, vertical drains are installed together with preloading by surcharge embankment or vacuum pressure. Vertical drains are artificially-created drainage paths which can be installed by one of several methods and which can have a variety of physical characteristics

GENERAL The consolidation settlement of soft clay subsoil creates a lot of problems in foundation and infrastructure engineering. Because of the very low clay permeability, permeability, the primary consolidation consoli dation takes a long time to complete. To To shorten this consolidation time, vertical drains are installed together with preloading by surcharge embankment or vacuum pressure. Vertical drains are artificially-created drainage paths which can be installed by one of several methods and which can have a variety of physical characteristics

GENERAL The purpose of vertical drain installation is twofold. Firstly, Firstly, to accelerate the consolidation process of the clay subsoil, and, secondly, to gain rapid strength increase to improve the stability of structures on weak clay foundation. Vertical Vertical drains can be classified into 3 general types, namely: sand drains, fabric encased sand drains, and prefabricated prefabricated sand drains

GENERAL

GENERAL Figure below illustrat il lustrate e a typical vertical drain installation for highway embankments. In this method, pore water squeezed out during the consolidation of the clay due to the hydraulic gradients created created by the preloading, can flow a lot faster in the horizontal direction toward the drain and then flow freely along the drains vertically towards the permeable drainage layers. Thus, the installation of the vertical drains in the clay reduces the length of the drainage paths and, thereby, thereby, reducing the time to complete the consolidation process. Consequently, the higher horizontal permeability of the clay is also taken advantage

GENERAL

GENERAL Applications of sand drains for improvement of soft ground in the Southeast Asian region have been reported by Tominaga et al. (1979) in Manila Bay Reclamation Area, Philippines; by Choa et al. (1979) in Changi Airport, Singapore; by Chou et al. (1980) in Taiwan; by Akagi (1981), Balasubramaniam et al. (1980), Brenner and Prebaharan (1983), Moh and Woo (1987), and Woo et al. (1989) in Bangkok, Thailand. Recent sand drain applications in Japan were reported by Takai et al. (1989) and Suzuki and Yamada (1990) in the Kansai International Airport Project and by Tanimoto et al. (1979) in Kobe, Japan.

GENERAL In Southeast Asia, various applications have been recently reported with regards to prefabricated vertical drains by Choa et al. (1981), Lee et al. (1989), and Woo et al. (1988) in Singapore, by Nicholls (1981) in Indonesia; by Volders (1984) and Rahman et al. (1990) in Malaysia; and by Belloni et al. (1979) in the Philippines. In the soft Bangkok clay in Thailand, prefabricated vertical band drains have been successfully applied and tested by full scale test embankments by Bergado et al. (1988, 1990a,b, 1991).

PRELOADING Preloading refers to the process of compressing foundation soils under applied vertical stress prior to placement of the final permanent construction load. If the temporary applied load exceeds the final loading, the amount in excess is referred to as surcharge load. When a preload is rapidly applied to a saturated, soft clay deposit, the resulting settlement can be divided into three idealized components, namely: immediate, primary consolidation, and secondary consolidation. In actual condition, the settlement behavior is more complex

PRELOADING Figure below illustrates a general relationship of the three idealized components. The relative importance and magnitude of each type of settlement depends on many factors such as: the soil type and compressibility characteristics, the stress history, the magnitude and rate of loading, and the relationship between the area of loading and the thickness of the compressible soil. Generally, the primary consolidation settlement predominates and, for many preloading projects, is the only one considered in the preload design. Preloading techniques have been discussed in detail elsewhere (Jamiolkowski et al. 1983; Pilot, 1981). One very important key point is that the amount of preloading should provide surcharge stresses that exceed the maximum past pressure in the clay subsoil

PRELOADING

PRELOADING Figure below shows the initial (v0) and final (vf ) effective stresses under the centerline of the test embankment compared with the maximum past pressure obtained by Casagrande method (Bergado et al. 1991). The Poulos (1976) method assuming finite elastic layer with rigid base was found to be approximately 35 % higher than the predictions of Janbu et al. (1956) assuming semi-infinite elastic layer of the soil mass.

PRELOADING

SAND DRAINS Early applications of vertical drains to accelerate consolidation of soft clay subsoils utilized sand drains. These are formed by infilling sand into a hole in the soft ground. There are two categories of installation methods, namely: displacement and non-displacement types. In the displacement type, a closed end mandrel is driven or pushed into the soft ground with resulting displacements in both vertical and lateral directions. The non-displacement type installation requires drilling the hole by means of power auger or water jets and is considered to have less disturbing effects on soft clay

SAND DRAINS Casagrande and Poulos (1969) concluded that driven sand drains are harmful in soft and sensitive clays due to the disturbance in driving the drains causing the reduction of shear strength and horizontal permeability. However, Akagi (1979) asserted that the mere installation of the sand drains alone results in the consolidation of the soft clay because of the large stresses induced during the installation. Thus, high excess pore pressure is generated (Brenner et al. 1979) and, after its subsequent dissipation, a gain in strength is achieved (Akagi, 1977a)

CHARACTERISTICS OF PREFABRICATED DRAINS A prefabricated vertical drain can be defined as any prefabricated material or product consisting of synthetic filter jacket surrounding a plastic core having the following characteristics: a) ability to permit porewater in the soil to seep into the drain; b) a means by which the collected porewater can be transmitted along the length of the drain.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PREFABRICATED DRAINS The jacket material consists of non-woven polyester or polypropylene geotextiles or synthetic paper that function as physical barrier separating the flow channel from the surrounding soft clay soils and a filter to limit the passage of fine particles into the core to prevent clogging. The plastic core serves two vital functions, namely: to support the filter jacket and to provide longitudinal flow paths along the drain even at large lateral pressures. Some details of various drain cores and the configuration of different types of prefabricated vertical drains (PVD) are illustrated in Fig. below. The PVD core can be classified into 3 main categories, namely: grooved core, studded core, and filament core.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PREFABRICATED DRAINS

CHARACTERISTICS OF PREFABRICATED DRAINS

CONSOLIDATION WITH VERTICAL DRAINS Barron (1948) presented the first exhaustive solution to the problem of consolidation of a soil cylinder containing a central sand drain. His theory was based on the simplifying assumptions of one-dimensional consolidation theory (Terzaghi, 1943). Barron's theory enable one to solve the problem of consolidation under two conditions, namely: (i) free vertical strain assuming that the vertical surface stress remains constant and the surface displacements are non-uniform during the consolidation process; (ii) equal vertical strain assuming that the vertical surface stress is non-uniform.

CONSOLIDATION WITH VERTICAL DRAINS In the case of equal strain, the differential equation governing the consolidation process   2U   1  U    U   C h  2     t    r  r  r          

where u is the average excess pore pressure at any point and at any given time; r is the radial distance of the considered point from the center of the drained soil cylinder; t is the time after an instantaneous increase of the total vertical stress, and C, is the horizontal coefficient of consolidation.

CONSOLIDATION WITH VERTICAL DRAINS For the case of radial drainage only, the solution of Barron (1948) under ideal conditions (no smear and no well resistance) is as follows: U h

Where: T   h



  8T h   1  exp     F ( n) 

C ht   De

 n2   3 1  F ( n)     n( n)   2  4 n   (1  n)  

and De is the diameter of the equivalent soil cylinder, dw is the equivalent diameter of the drain, and n (n = D e/dw) is the spacing ratio.

CONSOLIDATION WITH VERTICAL DRAINS Hansbo (1979) modified the equations developed by Barron (1948) for prefabricated drain applications. The modifications dealt mainly with simplifying assumptions due to the physical dimensions, characteristics of the prefabricated drains, and effect of PVD installation. The modified general expression for average degree of consolidation is given as: U h

  8T h   1  exp     F (n) 

F = F(n) + Fs + Fr where F is the factor which expresses the additive effect due to the spacing of the drains; F(n); smear effect, F ; and well-resistance, F

CONSOLIDATION WITH VERTICAL DRAINS For typical values of the spacing ratio, n, of 20 or more, the spacing factor simplifies to:   D  3  F ( n)

 ln  e    d w  4

To account for the effects of soil disturbance during installation, a zone of disturbance with a reduced permeability is assumed around the vicinity of the drain, as shown in Fig. below. The smear effect factor is given as:  F  s

 k       d      h   1 ln   s    k  s     d w  

where ds is the diameter of the disturbed zone around the drain; and k, is the coefficient of permeability in the horizontal direction in the disturbed zone.

CONSOLIDATION WITH VERTICAL DRAINS

CONSOLIDATION WITH VERTICAL DRAINS Since the prefabricated vertical drains have limited discharge capacities, Hansbo (1979) developed a drain resistance factor, Fr assuming that Darcy's law can be applied for flow along the vertical axis of the drain. The well-resistance factor is given as:  F r 



 z ( L

  



 z )

k h qw

where z is the distance from the drainage end of the drain; L is twice the length of the drain when drainage occurs at one end only; L is equal to the length of the drain when drainage occurs at both ends; k h is the coefficient of permeability in the horizontal direction in the undisturbed soil; and qw is the discharge capacity of the drain at hydraulic gradient 1.

CONSOLIDATION WITH VERTICAL DRAINS Incorporating the effects of smear and well-resistance, the time, t, to obtain a given degree of consolidation at an assumed spacing of PVD, is given as follows:   De 2       ( F (n)   F  s   F r  ) ln  1  t     1  U    8C   h       h  

For convenience on the part of users in designing vertical drain scheme, a design graph devised by Bergado et al. (1993a) is given in Fig. below. This is the first design graph that incorporates both the effects of smear and well- resistance.

CONSOLIDATION WITH VERTICAL DRAINS

DRAIN PROPERTIES The theory of consolidation with radial drainage assumes that the soil is drained by vertical drain with circular cross section. The equivalent diameter of a band-shaped drain is defined as the diameter of a circular drain which has the same theoretical radial drainage performance as the band-shaped drain. Subsequent finite element studies performed by Rixner et al. (1986) and supported by Hansbo (1987) suggested that the equivalent diameter preferable for use in practice can be obtained as: d w



(a



2

b)

DRAIN PROPERTIES The relative sizes of these equivalent diameters are compared to the band shaped cross-section of the prefabricated drain by Rixner et al. (1986). The discharge capacity of prefabricated drains is required to analyze the drain resistance factor and is usually obtained from published results reported by manufacturers. Rixner et al. (1986) reported results of vertical discharge capacity tests and those obtained by others, as shown in Fig. below. The results demonstrate the major influence of confining pressure.

DRAIN PROPERTIES

DRAIN INFLUENCE ZONE The time to achieve a given percent consolidation is a function of the square of the equivalent diameter of soil cylinder, De. This variable is controllable since it is a function of drain spacing and pattern. Vertical drains are usually installed in square or triangular patterns as shown in Fig. below. The spacing between drains establishes De through the following relationships: De = 1. 13S (square pattern) De = 1.05S (triangular pattern) The square pattern has the advantage for easier layout and control. A square pattern is usually preferred. However, the triangular pattern provides more uniform consolidation between drains.

DRAIN INFLUENCE ZONE

WELL RESISTANCE Hansbo (1979, 1981) presented, for equal-strain conditions, a closedform solution which allows for ready computation of the effects of well-resistance on drain performance. The finite drain permeability (well-resistance) was considered by imposing on the continuity equation of flow toward the drain. In this assumption, the flow rate in the considered section of the drain is equal to the maximum flow rate which can be discharged through the drain.

WELL RESISTANCE The discharge capacity of sand drains depends on the permeability of the sand. The sand used for the drains must be clean with good drainage and filtration characteristics. The discharge capacity of band drains varies considerably depending on the make of the drain and decreases with increasing lateral pressure. This is caused by either the squeezing in of the filter sleeve into the core channels reducing the cross-sectional area of the channels, or, for drains without a filter sleeve, the channels themselves are squeezed together. Another important factor is the folding of the drain when subjected to large vertical strains. In this case the channels of flow would be reduced, thus reducing the discharge capacity. The sedimentation of small particles in the flow channels may also decrease the discharge capacity

WELL RESISTANCE The introduction of the well-resistance concept affects the value of the degree of consolidation, U, which is no longer constant with depth as shown in Fig. below.

WELL RESISTANCE

WELL RESISTANCE Taking well-resistance into consideration, the rate of radial consolidation is controlled not only by Ch and D. but also by the ratio qw/kh as shown in Fig. below. This factor may play a very important role when prefabricated band drains of great lengths are used with typical values of qw/kh less than 500 m2 where the time necessary to achieve a specific degree of consolidation is increased (Jamiolkowski et al. 1983).

WELL RESISTANCE

WELL RESISTANCE The influence of well-resistance on the consolidation rate increases as the drain length increases. This is illustrated in Fig. below for a typical band-shaped drain (qw/kh = 400 m2).

WELL RESISTANCE

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES Although there are numerous variations in installation equipment for vertical drains, most of the equipment has fairly common features, some of which can directly influence the drain performance. The installation rigs are usually track-mounted boom cranes. The mandrel protects the drain during installation and creates the space for the drain by displacing the soil during the penetration. The mandrel is penetrated into the subsoil using either static or vibratory force. The drain installation results in shear strains and displacement of the soil surrounding the drain.

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES An example of soil movements produced in Bangkok clay as a result of the installation of displacement sand drains is given in Fig. below. The shearing is accompanied by increases in total stress and pore pressure.

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES The installation results in disturbance to the soil around the drain. The disturbance is most dependent on the mandrel size and shape, soil macrofabric, and installation procedure. The mandrel cross-section should be minimized, while at the same time, adequate stiffness of the mandrel is required. Bergado et al. (1991), from a full scale test embankment performance, obtained faster settlement rate in the small mandrel area than in the large mandrel area indicating lesser smeared zone in the former than the latter.

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES For design purposes, it has been evaluated by Jamiolkowski et al. (1981) that the diameter of disturbed zone, d s, can be related to the cross-sectional dimension of the mandrel as follows: d  s

(5 



6)d m 2

where dm is the diameter of a circle with an area equal to the crosssectional area of the mandrel. At this diameter, the theoretical shear strain is approximately 5 % as shown in Fig. below

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES Hansbo (1987) recommended the following expression based on the results of Holtz and Holms (1973) and Akagi (1979): d  s



2d m

This relationship has been verified in the reconstituted soft Bangkok clay by Bergado et al. (1991) using a specially designed laboratory drain testing apparatus as plotted in Fig. below.

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES The influence of smear increases with increasing drain diameter for sand drain or mandrel diameter for prefabricated drains (Hansbo, 1981). The time-settlement relationships obtained from full scale field test embankment (Bergado et al. 1991) is shown in Fig. below for small mandrel area together with the settlement prediction. The performance of PVD is well predicted with smear effect taken into consideration using kh/kv = 10 and ds =2dm. (Bergado et al. 1993b)

SMEAR EFFECTS AND DISTURBANCES