Geotechnical Engineering Journal of the SEAGS & AGSSEA ISSN 0046-5828
Vol. 51 No. 4 December 2020
Effect of Permeability Variation in Vacuum Consolidation
Van-Tuan Vu, Yu-you Yang, and Anh-Tuan Vu
ABSTRACT: The varying coefficient of permeability plays a major role in increasing the accuracy of the numerical prediction results. This paper aims to evaluate the range of deviation of numerical results if the varying coefficient of permeability is not used during the consolidation time. Four models, one with constant permeability and the others with the varying coefficient of permeability corresponding to different values of Cc/Ck, were used to simulate an axisymmetric single vacuum wellpoint. Comparing those predicted values together and to the measured values, the results show that: the settlement value and the decrease in pore water pressure value of the model which did not consider the change in permeability coefficient were higher than those of the models which considered the change in permeability coefficient during the consolidation process; the bigger the Cc/Ck ratio, the smaller the settlement and the smaller the decrease in pore water pressure.
KEYWORDS: Soft ground, Vacuum consolidation, Vertical drain, Vacuum wellpoint systems, Finite element method.
