Abstract:

For the prefabricated vertical drain （PVD） ground, most analytical solutions of consolidation are very difficult to solve and too many parameters are involved in the solving process. In order to solve this problem, by taking into account the drain resistance and the smear zone effect, the PVD ground is taken as a natural foundation according to the equivalent average consolidation degree, and the analytical solution of one-dimension consolidation is worked out in terms of vacuum preloading, which considers the variation of pore-water pressure on ground surface with vacuum-pumping. Then, the corresponding program is implemented according to the analytical solution. Moreover, the influences of smear zone and PVD drainage capacity on the consolidation process are investigated, and the relevant results demonstrated in graph forms are finally compared with those obtained via finite element method （FEM） and with the in-site data. It is found that the calculated results accord well with the FEM and in-site resuits, and that the calculation results are more simple and suitable for the engineering application.

Key words: vacuum preloading, equivalent ground, consolidation degree, simplified calculation, pore-water pressure