Computers and Geotechnics 31 (2004) 665676 www.elsevier.

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Three-dimensional analysis of embankments on soft soils incorporating vertical drains by nite element method
Jose Leitao Borges
*
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal Received 22 October 2003; received in revised form 1 November 2004; accepted 3 November 2004 Available online 15 December 2004

Abstract Three-dimensional behaviour of an embankment on soft soils incorporating vertical drains is analysed by a numerical model based on the nite element method. The model, which incorporates the Biots consolidation theory (coupled formulation of the ow and equilibrium equations) and constitutive relations simulated by the pqh critical state model, is applied on both the embankment with vertical drains (three-dimensional analysis) and the same problem but without vertical drains (two-dimensional analysis). Special emphasis is given to the analysis, during and after the construction period, of the excess pore pressures, settlements, horizontal displacements and stress levels. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Vertical drains; Embankment; Soft soils; Finite element method; Three-dimensional analysis; Consolidation

1. Introduction The study of embankments on soft soils is one of the permanent problems of the soil mechanics and has been analysed by a large number of authors. At the present time, in spite of all experience obtained over the last decades, the execution of this kind of constructions still collocates diverse and delicate problems that are determined by the weak geotechnical characteristics of the foundation soils: (i) low strength signicantly limits the load (embankment height) that is possible to apply with adequate safety for short term stability; (ii) high deformability and low permeability determine large settlements that develop slowly as pore water ows and excess pore pressure dissipates (consolidation). To design embankments on soft soils it is essential to take into account the multiple constructive techniques that allow to solve those problems. The constructive

Tel.: +351225081928; fax: +351225081940/1440. E-mail address: leitao@fe.up.pt.

solutions usually based on both foundation soil properties improvement and construction procedures or ll properties alteration provide one or more of the following eects: increase of global stability, consolidation acceleration and decrease of long term settlements [13]. The most used technique when the main purpose is to accelerate the consolidation is the use of vertical drains in the foundation soils (Fig. 1), which usually determines drastic decreases of hydrodynamic consolidation time. In the paper, the geotechnical behaviour of an embankment on soft soils incorporating vertical drains (geosynthetic band drains) is analysed during and after the construction period by a numerical model developed by Borges [4] for plane strain and axysymmetric analyses (initial version) and three-dimensional analysis (improvement included in the program in 2001). Special emphasis is given to the three-dimensional behaviour of this kind of constructions by the comparison of the results of the embankment incorporating the drains (three-dimensional analysis) with the results of the plane strain analysis of the same problem without vertical drains.

0266-352X/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.compgeo.2004.11.001

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DRAINAGE LAYER (0.5 to1m)

EMBANKMENT

SOFT SOILS HARD STRATUM

VERTICAL DRAINS

Fig. 1. Vertical drains acceleration of hydrodynamic consolidation.

Basically, for the present applications, the model uses the following theoretical hypotheses: (a) coupled formulation of the ow and equilibrium equations considering soil constitutive relations (elasto-plastic models) formulated in eective stresses (Biots consolidation theory) [47]; this formulation is applied to all phases of the problem, both during the embankment construction and in the post-construction period; (b) utilisation of the pqh critical state model [46,8], an associated plastic ow model, to simulate constitutive behaviour of the foundation and embankment soils. Fig. 2(a) shows, in the principal eective stress space, the yield and critical state surfaces of the pqh critical

state model. In the pq coordinate system (where p is the eective mean stress and q the deviatoric stress), the yielding function is a ellipse (Fig. 2(b)) and, depending on the stress path, the pqh model simulates hardening behaviour (as shown in Figs. 2(b) and (c) for stress path 12, where ev is the volumetric strain and ed the shear strain) or softening behaviour (stress path 34, Figs. 2(b) and (d)). In this model, the parameter that denes the slope of the critical state line, M, is not constant as in the Cam-Clay and Modied Cam-Clay models, but depends on the angular stress invariant, h, and friction angle of the soil dened in eective terms, / 0 , as follows: 3 sin /0 M p : 3 cos h sin /0 sin h 1

This denes the MohrCoulomb criteria (whose surface in the principal eective stress space is shown in Fig. 2(a)) when M is introduced in the equation of the critical state line q M p: 2

Fig. 2. Yield and critical state surfaces of the pqh critical state model in (a) principal eective stress space; (b) pq coordinate system; (c) stress path 12 (hardening behaviour); (d) stress path 34 (softening behaviour).

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This is an important characteristic of the pqh model because, as shown by triaxial tests [33], the critical state of soil depends on h. (DruckerPrager is the criteria of the Cam-Clay and Modied Cam-Clay models and does not depend on h). About embankments on soft ground, in order to verify accuracy of the nite element program in this kind of works, Borges [4] compared numerical and eld results of two embankments on soft soils, one constructed up to failure [9] and the other observed until the end of the consolidation [1012]. The accuracy was considered adequate in both cases, as numerical and eld results are similar, namely in terms of settlements and pore pressures. Only some quantitative dierences were observed in the horizontal displacements, despite an overall qualitative similarity too. In general terms, the verication of the program was made by comparing numerical results not only with eld results, as said above (which is the adequate way for complex problems without theoretical solutions), but also with theoretical results of several closed problems, namely one-dimensional Terzaghi consolidation, circular load on an elastic foundation [34], consolidation of a semi-innite elastic medium under an uniform surface loading over a circular area [35], drained and undrained triaxial tests for soils simulated with critical state models. Comparisons with numerical results presented by other authors, as Lewis and Schreer [5] with CRISP (critical state program), were also veried. It should be remembered that the rst consistent and general theory of multi-dimensional consolidation taking into account interdependence between soil eective strains and pore water ow (coupled formulation of the ow and equilibrium equations) was presented by Biot [13,14]. This theory, which was initially developed considering soil with isotropic and linear elastic behaviour, was posteriorly improved for more complex behaviours, namely anisotropy and viscosity [1517]. After the presentation of Biots consolidation theory, several authors have applied the nite element method on consolidation problems using mathematical formulations in which some of the initial hypotheses of Biot are reformulated (extensions of the Biots theory). Small et al. [18] considered the plasticity using MohrCoulomb model and Desai and Siriwardane [19] and Runesson [20] applied critical state models. The variation of the permeability in the course of the consolidation was considered by Lewis et al. [21]. Norris [22] extended the study to the use of constitutive models with kinematical hardening. Concerning the use of vertical drains in embankments on soft soils, Zeng et al. [23] conducted coupled consolidation analyses to assess the eectiveness of a method that calculates an equivalent horizontal permeability for plane strain analysis in which the vertical drains

are represented as sheets. Hird and Kwok [24] performed a parametric study of a test embankment where the eect of the vertical drains was considered by increasing the subsoil permeability by an estimated factor. Poran et al. [25] dened an equivalent vertical permeability for the subsoils by comparing an axisymmetric analysis of a cylindrical unit cell, with drainage occurring both horizontally, inwards, and vertically, upwards, with a plane strain unit cell with drainage towards the upper boundary only. This equivalent vertical permeability was used in a plane strain analysis of a trial embankment. Because embankments on soft soils incorporating vertical drains behave three-dimensionally (in terms of stress and water ow, as shown below in Section 3), one of the aims of the paper is to achieve a more complex phenomenological interpretation of the 3D gheotechnical behaviour of this kind of works, by performing a three-dimensional numerical analysis with the program developed by the author. For three-dimensional applications, the program uses two types of the 20-noded brick element. Fig. 3(a) shows the type used in the foundation soils (element with 60 displacement degrees of freedom, at the corners and at middle of the sides, and with 8 more excess pore pressure degrees of freedom, at the corners), where consolidation analysis is considered. In the ll, it is the 20noded brick element with only 60 displacement degrees of freedom (at the corners and at middle of the sides) that is used. Similarly, for two-dimensional analyses, two types of the six-noded triangular element are considered (Fig. 4): (i) with 12 displacement degrees of freedom, at the vertices and at middle of the edges (for ll elements) and (ii) with 3 more excess pore pressure degrees of freedom at the vertices (for foundation elements).

2. Description of the problem The problem concerns the construction of a 2 m height symmetric embankment, with a 10.6 m crest width, 2/3 (V/H) inclined slopes and very large longitudinal length. The foundation is a 5 m thick saturated clay layer lying on a rigid and impermeable soil, which constitutes the lower boundary. The clay is lightly overconsolidated to 1.8 m depth and normally consolidated from 1.8 to 5 m. It will be analysed the embankment with and without vertical band-shaped drains (geosynthetic prefabricated drains) with a 200 5 mm2 section and installed in a square grid with drain spacing of 2 m. The grid limit is 1.7 m beyond the toe to take up any lateral spread of excess pore pressures. It is not intended that the band drain reproduces any commercial product.

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Fig. 3. 3-D nite element used in the program, 20-noded brick element: (a) with 60 displacement degrees of freedom and 8 excess pore pressure degrees of freedom; (b) with 60 displacement degrees of freedom.

- displacement unknown - excess pore pressure unknown

Fig. 4. 2-D nite element used in the program, 6-noded triangular element: (a) with 12 displacement degrees of freedom and 3 excess pore pressure degrees of freedom; (b) with 12 displacement degrees of freedom.

Fig. 5 shows the nite element mesh used in the threedimensional analysis of the embankment incorporating the vertical drains.

The displacement boundary conditions were dened taking into account that the soft clay lays on a hard stratum (y = 0 plane, where displacements are set as zero in the three directions, x, y and z). One the other hand, symmetry conditions imply: (i) zero displacement in x-direction for nodes on the x = 0 plane; (ii) zero displacement in z-direction for nodes on the z = 0 plane, vertical plane containing one row of drains; (iii) zero displacement in z-direction for nodes on the z = 1 m plane, vertical plane equidistant from two rows of drains in x-direction. Assuming that the horizontal displacement can be dened as zero at nodes that are enough distant from the embankment, the plane of

Fig. 5. 3D nite element mesh for the problem with vertical drains.

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x = 23.9 m was considered as the lateral boundary with zero displacement in x-direction. With regard to drainage boundary conditions, excess pore pressure was set as zero on the ground level (upper drainage surface), i.e., on the y = 5 m plane, and on the drainage surfaces dened by the drains considered as sheets, namely on the following planes: x = 0, x = 2, x = 4, x = 6, x = 8 and x = 10 m, with y-coordinate varying from 0 to 5 m and z-coordinate from 0 to 0.1 m (which means that centres of the drains are on the z = 0 boundary plane and each drain was installed with its larger dimension, 0.20 m, in z-direction). The embankment construction was simulated activating the elements that form the ll layers. Four 0.5 m height layers were considered and, in order to assess the drainage eect even during the construction period, a discontinuous sequence of construction was dened as indicated in Fig. 6. The rst three layers were constructed in 3.5 days each, and the fourth in 7 days. The pause periods, which took place after each layer construction, were respectively 3.5, 3.5 and 38.4 days. As said in Section 1, the coupled analysis was performed in all phases of the problem, both during the embankment construction and in the post-construction period. The constitutive relations of both the embankment and foundation soils were simulated using the pqh critical state model [46,8] with the parameters indicated in Table 1 (k, slope of normal consolidation line and critical state line; k, slope of swelling and recompression line; C, specic volume of soil on the critical state line at mean normal stress equal to 1 kPa; N, specic volume of normally consolidated soil at mean normal stress equal to 1 kPa). Table 1 also shows other geotechnical properties: c, unit weight; m 0 , Poissons ratio for drained loading; c 0 and / 0 , cohesion and angle of friction dened in eective terms; kx and ky, coecients of permeability in x and y directions. Table 2 indicates the variation with depth of the at rest earth pressure coecient, K0, and over-consolidation ratio, OCR, in the foundation.

Table 2 At rest earth pressure coecient, K0, and over-consolidation ratio, OCR, in the foundation Depth (m) 01 11.8 1.85 K0 0.7 0.70.5 0.5 OCR 2.43 2.431 1

The embankment soil was considered with 0.43 for K0 and 1 for OCR. All these parameters were dened taking into account typical experimental values for this kind of soils [4,26]. Fig. 7 shows the 2D nite element mesh for the embankment without the drains, problem that can be considered as a plane strain problem, given the very large longitudinal length of the embankment; y axis is the symmetry line and, with exception of the boundary conditions for excess pore pressure (set as zero only on the upper drainage surface, i.e., at nodes with y = 5 m), all the other characteristics of the problem, when compared with the three-dimensional problem, are maintained. Given the non-linearity of the constitutive model used in the soils (pqh critical state model) and the boundary conditions, in both problems (with and without drains) mesh sensitivity in terms of variation of numerical results was analysed by considering several meshes and time increments (dierent geometry and time discretizations). The meshes (Figs. 5 and 7) and the increments used in the paper were assessed adequate by analysing, at each calculation of the coupled analysis, the global equilibrium of the problem (comparing external forces with stresses at all Gauss points of the elements). The smooth geometric variation of the stress results in the medium (presented in the following

embankment height (m) 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 5 10 0

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65 time (days)

Fig. 6. Embankment construction sequence.

Fig. 7. 2D nite element mesh for the problem without vertical drains.

Table 1 Geotechnical properties of the foundation and embankment soils c (kN/m3) m0 0.25 0.30 c 0 (kPa) 0 0 / 0 () 30 35 kx (m/s) 109 ky (m/s) 109 pqh critical state model k Foundation Embankment 17 20 0.22 0.03 k 0.02 0.005 C 3.26 1.80 N 3.40 1.817

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section) corroborated that the numerical convergence of this non-linear problem was achieved adequately. In the problem with the drains the total number of increments (i.e., total number of nite element calculations) was 359 (209 during the construction and 150 during the post-construction period). In the embankment without the drains the same number was used during construction, but a higher number (177) was considered during the post-construction period (since the consolidation time is longer).

3. Analysis of the results When a load is applied on a saturated soil mass, the distribution of the excess pore pressure has, usually, gradients that determine a eld of relative velocity among dierent zones of the soil. Initial conditions of a transient ow process are determined and transferences of load from the water (pore pressure) to the soil skeleton (eective stress) take place. Therefore, until a steady state is reached, the soil mass behaviour is determined by the variation of the elds of stress (pore pressure and eective and total stress), strain and displacement (consolidation). Figs. 8 and 9 show results of excess pore pressures for the two analyses of the problem, with and without vertical drains, at dierent phases, during and after the con-

struction period. For the 3D analysis, Fig. 8 shows results both on the vertical plane that contains one row of drain centres, z = 0 plane (on the right side), and on the vertical plane equidistant from two rows of drains, z = 1 m plane (on the left side). Based on these results, and considering the foundation divided into four typical zones as illustrated in Fig. 10, one can say that, for the problem without vertical drains, during construction period: (a) maximum values happen in zone A and are approximately similar to the vertical stress due to the embankment weight; (b) in zone B, excess pore pressures decrease from zone A to zone D, where their values are not signicant. After construction, when the problem is, above all, characterised by the transient water ow, one can see that isovalue curves have a very regular shape, normal to the ow lines. With regard to the results of the problem incorporating the vertical drains (Fig. 8), the shape of the isovalue curves clearly shows the three-dimensional condition of the problem, with drainage occurring both horizontally and vertically towards the several drainage surfaces (band drains and upper drainage surface). Maximum values also occur in zone A and also with similar values to the vertical stress determined by the embankment weight. However, the most important fact (see below the analysis of the settlements) concerns the signicantly eect of consolidation (mainly in zone A) due to the ver-

Fig. 8. Excess pore pressure (u) for the embankment with vertical drains. (a) 1 m height embankment (time = 14 days); umax = 20.15 kPa. (b) 2 m height embankment (end of construction); umax = 38.16 kPa. (c) 64 days after construction; umax = 29.29 kPa.

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Fig. 11. Deformed meshes for the embankment with vertical drains. (a) End of construction. (b) End of consolidation.

Fig. 9. Excess pore pressure (u) for the embankment without vertical drains. (a) 1 m height embankment (time = 14 days); umax = 19.62 kPa. (b) 2 m height embankment (end of construction); umax = 40.16 kPa. (c) 925 days after construction; umax = 25.13 kPa.

D
Fig. 12. Deformed meshes for the embankment without vertical drains. (a) End of construction. (b) End of consolidation.

Fig. 10. Four typical zones in the foundation.

tical drains, in comparison with embankment without the drains. Figs. 11 and 12 show the deformed meshes for both analyses, at the end of construction and at the end of consolidation (displacements are represented in a scale three times larger than the scale used for lengths). These results are complemented by the results shown in Figs. 1316, namely, settlements at the embankment base at dierent phases for the analysis with drains (Fig. 13), and for both analyses: (i) settlements at the embankment base at the end of construction and at the end of consolidation (Fig. 14); (ii) variation in time of settlement at the middle point under the embankment on the ground level, i.e., point with x = 0 and y = 5 m (and z = 0, for three-dimensional case) (Fig. 15); (iii) horizontal displacements at the end of construction and at the end of consolidation, along vertical line under the toe, i.e., along points with x = 8.3 m (and z = 0, for three-dimensional case) (Fig. 16). Based on these results, one can point out that, for both analyses, during the construction period: (i) there

are settlements in the central loaded zone (zone A of Fig. 10); (ii) there are important upward vertical displacements near the embankment toe (Figs. 1114); (iii) horizontal displacements are outwards (Fig. 16). As explained by Borges [4] and Borges and Cardoso [27], if the consolidation is not signicant during the construction period (which is valid, in most cases, for embankments without vertical drains, given the usually low permeability of the soft soils), these displacements are related to a strain eld characterised by volumetric strains that are practically zero (undrained conditions) and shear strains that have very expressive values. If the consolidation eect is signicant during the construction period (which really happens in the problem with the band drains), this eect is essentially expressed by the increase of the settlements (associated with the increase of volumetric strains by consolidation), as shown in Fig. 14 comparing maximum values of settlements at the embankment base for both analyses (13.8 and 8.4 cm). During the post-construction period, the main characteristic of the problem in terms of displacements is

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J.L. Borges / Computers and Geotechnics 31 (2004) 665676

h = 0.5 m (t = 7 days) h = 1 m (t = 14 days)

Settlement (m)

-0.10

h= 1.5 m (t= 17.5 days)

-0.20 -0.30 -0.40 -0.50 -0.60 0.00

h =1.5 m (t = 55.9 days)

h = 2 m (end of construction) h = 2 m (end of cosolidation)

h embankment height t time after beginning of construction

2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00

Distance from x=0 plane (m)

Fig. 13. Settlements at the embankment base for the embankment with vertical drains.

0.100 0.000 -0.100

-0.200 -0.300 -0.400 -0.500 -0.600 0.000 2.000 4.000 6.000 8.000 10.000

Embankment without vertical drains (end of construction) Embankment without vertical drains (end of consolidation) Embankment with vertical drains (end of construction) Embankment with vertical drains (end of consolidation)

Settlement (m)

Distance from x=0 plane (m)

Fig. 14. Settlements at the embankment base for the embankment with and without vertical drains.

0.00 -0.10

Embankment without vertical drains Embankment with vertical drains

-0.20 -0.30 -0.40 -0.50 -0.60 0 1000 2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Time after the end of construction (days)

Fig. 15. Settlement in time at the middle point under the embankment on the ground level (point with x = 0, y = 5 and, for three-dimensional case, z = 0) for the embankment with and without vertical drains.

expressed by generalised settlements and horizontal displacements that can be outwards too, as shown in Fig. 16 for the embankment without the vertical drains. As

explained by Borges [4], these outward horizontal displacements, in consonance with experimental results observed in real works [912,2831], are associated with shear strains during the consolidation process which are properly simulated only by elastoplastic models with closed yielding surfaces, which is the case of the pqh critical state model used in this study. Three more important eects about the use of the vertical drains, obtained from the analysis of the results, are pointed out below. The rst eect, as expected, is the very expressive decrease of the consolidation time (reduction from approximately 5000 to 500 days, as shown in Fig. 15). The second eect is the reduction of the maximum value of the long term settlements (about 16%, from 48.7 to 40.9 cm, as illustrated in Fig. 14). This eect is associated with a certain improvement of the foundation soil properties (decrease of voids ratio) by consolidation

Settlement (m)

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Fig. 16. Horizontal displacements at the end of construction and at the end of consolidation along vertical line under the toe (points with x = 8.3 m and, for three-dimensional case, z = 0) for the embankment with and without vertical drains.

during the construction period. This is a kind of a soil hardening eect that inuences the decrease of long term settlements (as well as the reduction of long term horizontal displacements, as shown in Fig. 16). This effect only happens because shear stress increases during the load periods and can reach higher values in the problem with the vertical drains (the consolidation eect during the pause periods increases undrained strength of the soil). If the problem was one-dimensional (as in the oedometer tests), this eect would not take place because in the load periods there is no variation of eective stress (in undrained conditions) and it is indierent whether there is pause periods or not, if total load is the same. The third eect is the uniformity of settlements along z-direction for the embankment with band drains, despite its three-dimensional behaviour in terms of stresses and water ow. This point is justied by the existence of arch eect inside the ll, which is expressed by the application of a non-uniform vertical load on the foundation surface (see Fig. 17). The vertical load, at a determined phase, is smaller on zones that tend, by consolidation, to settle more than the others, i.e., near the vertical drains. This eect, as shown by eld results [1012], tends to be equilibrated in a non-uniform distribution of the vertical load that approximately uniformizes the corresponding settlements.

Finally, Figs. 18 and 19 show values of the stress levels (which vary from 0 to 1, being 1 the critical state level) at dierent phases of the problem; Fig. 20 presents the eective principal stresses for the embankment without vertical drains at the ends of construction and consolidation. The denition of stress level, SL, is given in Fig. 21 for an arbitrary stress state represented by the point A in the pq plane, where p is the eective mean stress and q the deviatoric stress. For the embankment without vertical drains (Fig. 18), one can point out that: (i) during the construction period, the main characteristic of the problem is

Fig. 17. Increment of vertical eective stress (kPa) at the end of construction for the embankment with vertical drains.

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Fig. 20. Eective principal stresses for the embankment without vertical drains. (a) End of construction. (b) End of consolidation.

Fig. 18. Stress levels for the embankment without vertical drains. (a) 1 m height embankment (time = 14 days). (b) 2 m height embankment (end of construction). (c) End of consolidation.

expressed by the increase of the stress levels in the foundation (and therefore by the decrease of the problem safety [27,32]), especially in Zone B (Fig. 10); as shown in Fig. 20(a), this eect is associated with an eective stress path basically characterised by the rotation of the principal stresses directions (i.e., low variations of eective mean stress and signicant increases of deviatoric stress); (ii) during the post-construction period,

the eective stress path (associated with the dissipation of the excess pore pressures) is characterized by expressive increases of eective mean stress and low variations of deviatoric stress (for in Fig. 20 the magnitude of the principal stresses increases without their directions signicantly changing), which implies a generalised reduction of the stress levels, as illustrated in Fig. 18. With regard to the results of stress levels of the embankment with vertical drains (Fig. 19), the main dierence in relation to the embankment without drains concerns the very signicant reduction of the stress levels at all phases of the problem (and particu-

Fig. 19. Stress levels for the embankment with vertical drains. (a) 1 m height embankment (time = 14 days). (b) 2 m height embankment (end of construction). (c) End of consolidation.

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q tg SL= tg critical state line A

5. In spite of its three-dimensional behaviour in terms of stresses and water ow, settlements of the embankment with vertical drains are approximately uniform along longitudinal direction. This is justied by the existence of arch eect inside the ll, which is expressed by the application of a non-uniform vertical load on the foundation surface.

References
p
Fig. 21. Denition of stress level, SL, in the pq plane. [1] Terzaghi K, Peck RB. Soil mechanics in engineering practice. New York: Wiley; 1948. [2] Johnson SJ. Treatment of soft foundations for highway embankments. Synthesis of Highway Practice 29, USA: National Cooperative Highway Program; 1975. p. 25. [3] Holtz RD. Treatment of problem foundations for highway embankments. Synthesis of highway practice 147, Washington (DC): National Cooperative Highway Research Program; 1989. p. 72. [4] Borges JL. Geosynthetic-reinforced embankments on soft soils. Analysis and design. Ph.D. thesis in civil engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal; 1995 [in Portuguese]. [5] Lewis RW, Schreer BA. The nite element method in the deformation and consolidation of porous media. New York: Wiley; 1987. [6] Britto AM, Gunn MJ. Critical soil mechanics via nite elements. England: Ellis Horwood Limited; 1987. [7] Borges JL, Cardoso AS. Numerical simulation of the consolidation processes in embankments on soft soils. R Geotecnia 2000;89:5775. [in Portuguese]. [8] Borges JL, Cardoso AS. Numerical simulation of the pqh critical state model in embankments on soft soils. R Geotecnia 1998;84:3963 (in Portuguese). [9] Quaresma MG. Behaviour and modelling of an embankment over soft soils reinforced by geotextile. Ph.D. thesis, Universite Joseph Fourier, Grenoble I, 1992 [in French]. [10] Yeo KC. Simplied foundation data to predictors. Proceedings of the prediction symposium on a reinforced embankment on soft ground. London: Kings College; 1986. [11] Basset RH. The instrumentation of the trial embankment and of the Tensar SR2 grid. Proceedings of the prediction symposium on a reinforced embankment on soft ground. London: Kings College; 1986. [12] Basset RH. Presentation of instrumentation data. Proceedings of the prediction symposium on a reinforced embankment on soft ground. London: Kings College; 1986. [13] Biot MA. The consolidation problems of clayey materials under a load. Annales de la Societe Scientique de Bruxelles 1935;55(Series B):1103. [in French]. [14] Biot MA. General theory of three-dimensional consolidation. J Appl Phys 1941;12:15564. [15] Biot MA. Theory of elasticity and consolidation for a porous anisotropic solid. J Appl Phys 1955;26:1825. [16] Biot MA. Theory of deformation of a porous viscoelastic anisotropic solid. J Appl Phys 1956;27:45967. [17] Biot MA. General solutions of the equations of elasticity and consolidation for a porous material. Transactions. J Appl Mech 1956;78:916. [18] Small JC, Booker JR, Davis EH. Elastoplastic consolidation of soil. Int J Solids Struct 1976;12:43148. [19] Desai CS, Siriwardane THJ. Subsidence due to consolidation including nonlinear behaviour. In: Saxena SK, editor.

larly at the end of the construction period) due to the consolidation acceleration determined by use of the vertical drains.

4. Conclusions In the paper, a numerical model based on the nite element method was used to analyse the structural behaviour of an embankment on soft soils incorporating vertical drains. The model, which incorporates the Biots consolidation theory and constitutive relations simulated by the pqh critical state model, was applied on both the embankment with vertical drains (three-dimensional analysis) and the same problem without vertical drains (two-dimensional analysis). The analysis of the results (excess pore pressures, settlements, horizontal displacements and stress levels) allows to point out the following conclusions on the eects of the use of vertical drains in embankments on soft soils: 1. The eect on the total time of consolidation is very expressive (reduction of about 10 times, from approximately 5000 to 500 days). 2. This fact is obviously associated with the faster dissipation of the excess pore pressures (and consequent decrease of the stress levels) at all phases of the problem, during and after the construction period. 3. The increase of the maximum settlement value at the end of the construction is signicant (about 64%, from 8.4 to 13.8 cm), which implies a certain improvement of the foundation soil properties (decrease of voids ratio) by consolidation during the construction period. 4. This eect, which is a kind of a hardening eect of the soil, inuences the decrease of the long term settlements (about 16%, from 48.7 to 40.9 cm), as well as the reduction of long term horizontal displacements.

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