Consolidation Analysis of Dredged Fill Ground Installed with Horizontal Drains (I) - Program Development and Verification -

A finite difference program with 3-D governing equation expanded from 1-D self-weight consolidation is developed to analyze the consolidation behavior of surface dredged soil with horizontal drains. Various boundary conditions with horizontal drains and seepage pressure of pore water infiltrated to the drains are considered in the program. A laboratory soil chamber experiment for the consolidation of dredged soil is performed to validate the program and the measured settlement-time result is compared with the one predicted by the program. The influence of design conditions of horizontal drains such as horizontal installation spacing, installation depth and number of drain layers, on the consolidation is analyzed.