Influence of Permeability on Axial Symmetric Consolidation Method via Plaxis3D

摘要

As an efficient treatment in soft ground, the drainage consolidation methods have been widely used in the engineering. Accordingly, the numerical technical also develops rapidly. The vacuum load is newly added in Plaxis3D AE and the effect of this new feature is discussed in this paper. A simple axial symmetric finite element model with sand well is established to investigate the influence of permeability coefficient on the horizontal consolidation. The results show that as the permeability coefficient of the sand well becomes large, the rate of consolidation also increases. Therefore, the treatment that the drainage line/surface assumes that the drainage capacity of vertical drain is infinite is unreasonable, which may result in overestimation of the ground deformation. The drainage surface is recommended to set on the top of the sand well to simulate the vacuum load and the degree of vacuum can be transferred to the bottom of ground gradually through the sand well.