246 CHAPTER 9 ONE-DIMENSIONAL CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT OF FINE-GRAINED SOILS What's next. . . Sometimes we may have to build structures on a site for which the calculated settlement of the soil is intolerable. One popular method to reduce the consolidation settlement to tolerable limits is to preload the soil and use wick drains to speed up the drainage of the excess porewater pressure, Next, we will discuss wick drains. 9.10 PRECONSOLIDATION OF SOILS USING WICK DRAINS \Q_ Computer Program Utility Access www.wiley.com/college/budhu and click Chapter 9 for a spreadsheet on wick drains (wick.xls) The purpose of wick drains is to accelerate the consolidation settlement of soft, saturated clays by reducing the drainage path. A wick drain is a prefabricated drainage strip that consists of a plastic core surrounded by a nonwoven polypropylene geotextile jacket (Figure 9.19). The geotextile (a filter fabric) allows passage of water into the core that is then pumped out. A wick drain is installed by enclosing the drain in a tubular steel mandrel and supporting it at the base by an anchor plate, The mandrel is then driven into the soil by a vibratory rig or pushed by a hydraulic rig. At the desired depth, the mandrel is removed, the drain and anchor plate remain in place, and the drain is cut off with a tail about 300 mm long, The effect of drains on the soil consolidation is illustrated in Figure 9.20. A wick drain in which one end is on an impervious boundary is called a half-closed drain (Figure 9.21). Sometimes the drain may penetrate into a pervious layer below an impervious layer, allowing the porewater to be expelled from the top and bottom of the drain, Such a drain provides two-way drainage and would accelerate the consolidation of the soil. Recall that for one-dimensional consolidation, two-way drainage reduces the time for a given degree of consolidation by four times compared with single drainage. ‘The governing equation for axisymmetric radial drainage is 2 o(% where ris the radial distance from the center of the drain and G, is the coetficient of consolidation in the horizontal or radial direction, The boundary conditions to solve Equation (9.49) are: x) (9.49) a, Atr= rg w= 0 wheat >0 a Atr=R: “=o a FIGURE 9.19 Wick drain910 PRECONSOLIDATION OF SOILS USINGWICK DRAINS 247 Canseuction pros I Without eraine Cconsliatin | Final settlement FIGURE 9.20 Effects of wick drains on time to achion of consolidation. agiven degree Pezometer —>| Surcharge Secten pote ater shonin Coe Lateral drinoge Tmperieus ts | y= 2k soash of oO ~e 0 © FIGURE 9.21 (a) Vertical section of a half-closed wick drain. (b) Plan of a square grid wick drain. (c) Plan of a triangular grid wick drain,248 CHAPTER 9 ONE-DIMENSIONAL CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT OF FINE-GRAINED SOILS and the initial condition is = 0, u = u,, where ry is the radius of the drains, is time, and R is the radius of the cylindrical influence zone (Figure 9.21). Richart (1959) reported solutions for Equation (9.49) for two cases—free strain and equal strain. Free strain occurs when the surface load is uniformly distributed (llexible foundation, Figure 9.21) and the resulting surface settlement is uneven. Equal strain occurs when the surface settlement is forced to be uniform (rigid foundation) and the resulting surface load is not uniformly distributed. Richart showed that the differences in the two cases are small and the solu- tion for equal strain is often used in practice ‘The time factor for consolidation in the vertical direction is given by Equation (9.33), while the time factor for consolidation in the radial direction (1,) is Git 4R? The hydraulic conductivity of the soil in the horizontal or radial direction is sometimes much greater (2 to 10 times for many soils) than in the vertical direction (Chapter 6) and, consequently, Cis, greater than C,, usually C)/C, ~ 1.2 to 2. During drilling of the borehole and installation of the drain, a thin layer of soil at the interface of the drain is often remolded. This thin layer of remolded soil is called a smear zone. The values of C, and G, are often much lower in the smear zone than in the natural soil. It is customary to use reduced values of C, and C;,to account for the smear zone. ‘The average degree of consolidation for vertical and radial dissipation of porewater pressure (U,) 8 (9.50) Uy = (=v) - 5) (9.51) where Uis the average degree of consolidation for vertical drainage [Equation (9.35)] and U, is the aver- age degree of consolidation for radial drainage. ‘The flow into wick drains is predominantly radial. Assuming no soil disturbances during installa- tion, the time for soil consolidation for a finite vertical discharge capacity is, Pw _ ons ¥G| (em In F* — 0.75 + 025 Dw, where f is time(s) required to achieve the desired consolidation, D, is diameter (m) of the zone of influence, C,, is the coefficient of consolidation for horizontal flow (m’/s), d,,(m) = 2(h + b)/m is the equivalent drain diameter, b (m) is the width and / (m) is the thickness of the drain, z (m) is the dis- tance to flow point, L (m) is the effective drain length (total drain length when drainage occurs at one end only, half length when drainage occurs at both ends), &(mv/s) is the hydraulic conductivity of the soil (usually, either the radial or equivalent k value is used), q,,(m'/s) is discharge capacity of the wick drain at a gradient of 1, and U is average degree of consolidation. For a square arrangement of drains, the spacing, s,is about 0.88D,,, while for a triangular arrangement, s = 0.95Dy. ‘The spacing of the wick drains is the primary design parameter for a desired amount of settlement in a desired time period. The other design parameter is the surcharge height. In general, by varying the spacing and surcharge height, the designer can obtain the most economical combination of wick spacing, consolidation time, and surcharge height for a project. 2 Di} Dy ( dy (052) EXAMPLE 9.12 Spacing of Wick Drains ‘A foundation for a structure is to be constructed on a soft deposit of clay, 20 m thick. Below the soft clay is a sti overconsolidated clay. The calculated settlement cannot be tolerated, and it was decided that the soft soil should be preconsolidated by an embankment equivalent to the building load to achieve 90% consolidation in 12 months. Wicken suMMaRy 249 drains are required to speed up the time for soil consolidation. The wick drains are 100 mm wide and 3 mm thick, with a discharge of 0.1 x 10™* m'/s The properties ofthe soils are & = 0.01 X 10~* mis and C, = 1 x 10"* m/s The distance to the flow point is 10 m and the system is half-closed, Determine the spacing of the wick drains arranged in a square grid. Strategy You have to assume a spacing such that the calculated time using Equation (9.52) matches the desired time of 12 months. It is best to set up a spreadsheet to do this calculation and use the Goal Seck ‘function, Such a spreadsheet is available at www-iley.cons/ollege/budbu. Solution 9.12 The spreadsheet solution follows. A 5 c > E 1 2 Spacing . os7 m 3 Drain configuration s 5 square, t= wianguler 4 Drain width h 100 mm 5 Thickness > 3 mam 6 Degree of consolidation uv 20 % 7 Coat. of hore. consolidation c 1 x10" mls 3 Desired time t 385 days 8 Soil thickness L 20 m 10 Distance to flow point 2 0 m ” Discharge capacity we 04 S107 mF 2 Soil permeability ky oot x10" me 3 Diameter of influence 5, 07m 4 Equivalent diameter ae 0557 mm 18 kg ratio o4 x10 6 Calculated time 365 days Cell C16 is Equation (9.52), Using the Goal sek function in Excel with the following input: Set call cre To value 365 By changing cell c2 The spreadsheet calculations give a spacing of 0.97 m. Use 1m spacing, 9.11 SUMMARY Consolidation settlement of a soil is a time-dependent process that depends on the hydraulic conductivity and thickness of the soil, and the drainage conditions. When an increment of vertical stress is applied to a soil, the instantaneous (initial) excess porewater pressure is equal to the vertical stress increment. With time, the initial excess porewater pressure decreases, the vertical effective stress increases by the amount of decease of the initial excess porewater pressure, and settlement increases. The consolidation settlement is made up of two parts—the carly time response called primary consolidation and a later time response called secondary compression. Soils retain a memory of the past maximum effective stress, which may be erased by loading to a higher stress level. If the current vertical effective stress on a soil was never exceeded in the past (a normally consolidated soil), it would behave elastoplastically when stressed. If the current vertical effective stress on a soil was exceeded in the past (an overconsolidated soil), it would behave elastically (approximately) for stresses less than its past maximum effective stress.250 CHAPTER 9 ONE-DIMENSIONAL CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT OF FINE-GRAINED SOILS ss Chapter 9 at http:/Avww.wiley.com/college/budhu to take the end-of-chapter quiz to test your understanding of this chapter. Practical Examples EXAMPLE 9.13 Lateral Stress During Soil Consolidation in the Lab A soil was consolidated in an oedometer to a vertical stress of 100 kPa and then unloaded incrementally to 50 kPa. The excess porewater pressure is zero. I the frictional soil constant 6, is 25°, determine the lateral stress. Strategy ‘the soilin this case becomes overconsolidated—the past maximum vertical elective stress is 100 kPa and the current effective stress is 50 kPa, You need to find K and then K°S using the OCR of your soil. (See Section 7.10) n 9.13 Step 1: Calculate K: Equation (7.51): Ke = sin25 = 058 Step2: Calculate OCR, 100 ocr a Step 3 Calculate KS Equation (7.52): KS = KE(OCR)? = 0:58(2)"" = 082 Step 4: Calculate the lateral effective stress. ot 82 x 50 = 41kPa Step S: Calculate the lateral total stress. oy = 05+ Au=41 +0 =41 kPa EXAMPLE 9.14 Consolidation Settlement Due to a Foundation A foundation for an oil tank is proposed for a site with a soil profil, as shown in Figure B9.14a, A specimen of the fine-grained soil, 75 mm in diameter and 20 mm thick, was tested in an oedometer in a laboratory. The initial water content was 62% and G, = 2.7 The vertical stresses were applied incrementally —each increment remaining on the specimen until the porewater pressure change was negligible, The cumulative settlement values at the end of each loading step are as follows: Vertical stress (KPa) 15 3060 20240480 Settlement mm) O10 om oat 87s ‘The time-settlement data when the vertical stress was 200 kPa are: Time (min) 0 021 4 9 16 36 64 100 Settlement (mm) 0 0.22 0.42 0.6 0.71 0.79 0.86 0.81 0.93