Consolidation behavior of dredged ultra-soft soil improved with prefabricated vertical drain at the Mae Moh mine, Thailand

Abstract

The effectiveness of the prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) in the consolidation of ultra-soft dredged soil with various soil water contents (W) in Mae Moh mine, Lampang, Thailand was researched via a series of large-scale model tests and numerical analysis. Large settlements with the delay of excess pore pressures is a distinct behavior of ultra-soft soil. The PVD dimensions were found to have a significant effect on the rate of consolidation and the delay of excess pore pressure at low total vertical stress (σv). The smaller PVD dimension resulted in the smaller rate of consolidation and longer delay of excess pore pressure. The undrained shear strength (Su) of ultra-soft clay at various degrees of consolidation could be approximated by the vertical effective stress (σ′v) based on the SHANSEP where the σ′v was determined from the Asaoka's observational method. The finite element analysis with axisymmetric and plane strain models showed that the axisymmetric model produced an excellent settlement prediction. However, the excess pore pressures were not well predicted by the axisymmetric model, due to the delay of excess pore pressures at the early stages of consolidation. In practice, the plane strain models proposed by Chai et al. and Indraratna and Redana's methods are suggested to predict the consolidation settlement of the Mae Moh dredged soil improved with PVD. The outcome of this research will facilitate the geotechnical design of reclamation of ultra-soft dredged soil in Mae Moh mine and other similar soils.