Evaluation of vertical drain with different materials

Abstract

Accelerate the drainage process and consolidate saturated clay soils is important to achieve stability of the construction. Vertical drains, with a suitable grid and depth, the result of shortening the path of water flow inside the soil and soil consolidation rate increases from several years to several months. Sombar earth dam, a case study, in Gholaman village in North Khorasan province, Iran, is used to provide agricultural and drinking water in the area. The recent paper shows a comparison between the results of Sombar dam stability with vertical drains of two different materials using the Mohr-Coulomb model with the aid of GeoStudio 2012 computer software. The drains materials are sand and geotextile and the investigated parameters are permeability ratio (ky/kx), drains geometry and time of the dam construction. The results are presented as ratios, settlement ratio (SSAND/SGEOTEX) and safety factor ratio (FSSAND/FSGEOTEXT). The results revealed that there are clear increases in the consolidation settlement ratio, but, slightly increase in safety factors ratio using sand drains comparing to the geotextile. The ky/kx has a clear effect on settlement and factor of safety in sand drains.