Influence of vertical drains on improving dredged mud by vacuum consolidation method

Vacuum consolidation preloading method (VCM) has been widely adopted as an effective solution for soft soil improvement over the world. Recently, VCM has been successfully applied for improving the geotechnical properties of dredged mud, which is normally dumped at reclamation area by hydraulic pumping. However, it has been also reported that application of VCM for treatment of the dredged mud has been failed in some particular cases. The failures are mainly caused by clogging problem in vertical drains due to fine-grained soils that reduces the drainage efficiency of drainage system. To address this issue, a series of model tests have been conducted to investigate the performances of vertical drains among prefabricated vertical drain, sand drain and filter pipe. As the goal, the performances of types of the vertical drain solutions are analyzed based on the monitoring data of settlement, influencing zone surrounding the vertical drains. The test results reveal that sand drain shows the best performance among the others. In addition, the clogging problem is clearly shown in case of PVD. Keywords: dredging slurry; vacuum consolidation method; model test; PVD; filter pipe; sand drain.