Vertical drainage capacity of new electrical drainage board on improvement of super soft clayey ground

Abstract

As an advanced polymer composites electro-kinetic geosynthetics, the electro-osmotic vertical drainage (EVD) board could drain water quickly and accelerate consolidation process. However, the drainage rate was mainly impacted by the vertical drainage capability. Therefore, vertical drainage capability at the top of EVD board was theoretically analyzed. Basic requirements for drainage at the top of the board were summed up, as well as the formula of anode pore pressure when losing the vertical drainage capability. Meanwhile, a contrast test on the top and bottom drainage capacities was conducted. In use of the advanced EVD board, the voltage potential and pore pressure of anode were measured. Moreover, the derived formulas were verified. The result shows that the decrease of electric force gradient had an observable impact on the drainage capability. There was nearly no difference between the energy consumption for the two drainage methods. Although a little less water was discharged, the top drainage method had more advantages, such as high initial drainage velocity, few soil cracks, low anode water content and high soil strength. All of these show that the super soft soil ground could be consolidated quickly in use of the advanced EVD board through the top drainage. The top drainage method could efficiently improve the drainage effect, decrease the energy consumption and speed up the project proceeding.