A laboratory soil test and a numerical simulation were carried out to verify the reinforcing mechanism of ground improvement using a dense array of plastic board drains against ground liquefaction. The laboratory test is to shear a soil element with a group of plastic drains embedded under no volume change condition. The numerical simulation is to employ the discrete element method to examine the reinforcing mechanism of plastic board drains by simulating the above laboratory test. The laboratory test and numerical simulation both show the effectiveness of plastic board drain that prevents the decrease of effective stress in the reinforced soil considerably and therefore would reduce the excess pore pressure built-up considerably.
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