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Numerical analysis of embankments on soft clay improved by PVDs

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 Innovative Geotechnics for Africa - Bouassida, Khemakhem &Haffoudhi (Eds.) 2015 © ISBN : 978-9938-12-936-6

Numerical analysis of embankments on soft clay improved by PVDs

Analyse numérique des remblais sur argile molle améliorée par PVD
M.A. Mansour*1, A.M. Samieh2and M.H. Mahmoud 3
1,2
Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt
3
Advanced Construction Technology Services ACTS, Doha, Qatar

ABSTRACT – The approach of Preloading fills coupled with Prefabricated Vertical Drains (PVDs) is one of the soil
improvement techniques exhibiting successful use in stabilizing soft clay formations. This study numerically investigated the
performance of a monitored earth embankment that was constructed on a very soft to soft clay formation improved by PVDs.
Numerical analysis was conducted using the two-dimensional finite element program PLAXIS, considering the smear effect.
A good comparison was revealed between the monitored and the predicted responses. In addition, a sensitivity study was
carried out to highlight the influence of some modelling parameters and design considerations that may be of a major concern
on designing such embankments. The considered parameters were the PVD length, the PVD spacing and the width of the
improved ground. Moreover, the impacts of smear zone permeability and the shear strength of soft clay were investigated.

RÉSUMÉ–L'approche de préchargement remplit couplé avec les drains verticaux préfabriqués (PVD) est l'un des sols
techniques d'amélioration présentant une utilisation reussite à stabiliser les formations d'argile molle. Cette étude
numériquement étudiée la performance d'un surveillé remblai du terre qui a été construit sur un très doux à doux formations du
molle améliorée par PVD. L'analyse numérique a été réalisée en utilisant le bidimensionnel element limité programme
PLAXIS ,considérant l'effet de balayage. Un bonne comparaison a été révélé entre le surveillé et les réponses prédites. En
outre, une étude de sensibilité a été réalisée à mettre en évidence l'influence de certains paramètres de modélisation et des
considérations de conception qui peuvent être de les préoccupations majeure inclus dans la conception de ces remblais. Les
paramètres considérés sont la longueur de PVD, l'espacement des PVD et la largeur de la sol améliorè. En plus, les effets de
zone de souillure perméabilité et la résistance au cisaillement de l'argile molle ont été étudiés. De plus, les impacts de frottis
zone perméabilité et la résistance au cisaillement de l'argile molle ont été étudiés.

1 INTRODUCTION

Soft clay formations are extensively located in many coastal areas around the world as such the north coast of Africa. Design
and construction of earth embankments on soft formations encounters the problem of excessive total and differential
settlements, large lateral displacement and inadequate bearing capacity of such formations. The need to improve the undesired
ground conditions for construction purposes provides challenges to geotechnical engineers. Many ground improvement
techniques have been developed to overcome engineering problems facing the construction of embankments over soft alluvial
deposits. The approach of preloading fills coupled with vertical drains,with different configurations, is one of the frequently
adopted soil improvement techniques of soft clay formations. The installation of vertical drains reduces the length of the
drainage path that accelerates the consolidation process.
Currently PVDs are successfully adopted for soft soil stabilization, especially for roads, railways, ports, airports and
various other infrastructure projects, to reduce the total and differential settlements, reduce the lateral displacement and
increase the ground bearing capacity (Arulrajah, 2005).
Different approaches have been adopted to analyze the behavior of earth embankments constructed on soft clay formations
stabilized by PVDs. These methods can be grouped into three categories; analytical, observational and numerical techniques.
Barron (1948) first presented the analytical solution to the problem of soil consolidation due to horizontal flow towards
vertical drains. Hansbo (1981) recommended some modifications to Barron’s solution, which dealt mainly with the simplified
assumptions of the equation to take into account the physical dimensions, characteristics of prefabricated drains and the effect
of drain installation. The observational methods uses settlement monitoring records for back-calculating the degree of
consolidation and some soil parameters, such as the coefficient of consolidation in case of using Asaoka’s method (1978).
Numerical analysis of earth embankments constructed on soft ground improved by PVDs, requires adopting three
dimensional (3-D) models because the consolidation around vertical drains is neither truly axisymmetric nor plain strain.
Three dimensional idealization is very infrequent for routine analysis due to its complexity (Mestat, 2001). To employ a
realistic two dimensional (2-D) finite element analysis for vertical drains, the equivalence or matching between the 3-D
condition versus the plane strain or axisymmetric conditions needed to be established (Hird, 1992; Bergado & Long, 1994;
Indraratna & Redana, 2000; Lin et al. 2000 and Chai et al. 2001). Hird (1992) pointed out that the matching of axisymmetric
and plane strain conditions can be done in three ways: (a) geometric matching of the spacing between the drains while
keeping the permeability the same, (b) permeability coefficient matching while keeping the drains spacing to be the same, and
(c) combination of permeability and geometric matching approaches where a plane strain permeability is calculated for a
convenient drain spacing. Bergado and Long (1994) proposed another matching approach for 2-D modelling of PVD effects.

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The PVDs are transformed to continuous walls with the same spacing and with the assumption that the coefficient of
permeability is independent of the state of seepage flow.
Arulrajah et al. (2004) has adopted the two-dimensional (2-D) finite element program PLAXIS (Brinkgreve, 2002) to study
numerically the behavior of an embankment constructed on marine clays strata at Singapore. The PVDs were modeled by
adopting an axisymmetric unit cell model and by using a full scale plane strain model. The equivalent horizontal permeability
of surrounding soils was estimated using the approach of Lin et al. (2000). The predicted embankment performance was
compared via the field measurement and Asoaka's method (1978). Good agreement was noticed between the finite element
results and the field settlements. Except that the axisymmetric unit cell provided a slightly smaller settlement values than that
of the full scale model.
Hien (2008) analyzed the behavior of the monitored Muar Bypass road embankment, Malaysia. The embankment was
constructed on a soft clay formation stabilized with PVD and a geotextile layer along the embankment base. The numerical
simulation was carried out using the 2-D finite element program PLAXIS. The numerical results exhibited acceptable
comparison with the field measurements.
This research presents the results of a detailed numerical study conducted to investigatethe response of a monitored earth
embankment constructed on a soft clay formation improved with PVDs. A comparison between the numerically predicted and
the monitored responses is presented to assess the adequacy of the adopted numerical modelling approach. Also, a sensitivity
study is presented to investigate the influence of some parameters that may be of a major concern on designing such
embankments such as the PVD length,the PVD spacing and the improved ground width. These three parameters have a major
economical impact for such projects. In addition, the sensitivity study investigates the influence of the soft clay shear strength
characteristics and the smear zone permeability.

2 EMBANKMENT CONFIGURATION, MATERIAL PROPERTIES AND NUMERICAL MODELLING

A full scale earth embankment TS1 was designed, constructed and monitored at the proposed Second Bangkok International
Airport at Nong Ngu Hao, East Bangkok, Thailand (Bergado et al., 2002).The soil profile at the test site is relatively uniform,
consisting of 2m thick weathered crust overlying very soft to soft clay approximately 10 m thick. Underlying the soft clay is a
medium stiff clay layer, about 4 m thick, followed by a stiff clay layer extending down to 24 m depth which is in turn
underlain by a layer of dense sand. The ground water was encountered between 0.5 and 1.0 m below the ground surface. The
embankment was 4.2 m in height with side slopes of 3H: 1V. Figure 1 presents the embankment configuration. The
prefabricated vertical drains were installed in a square pattern at spacing of 1.5m and were of depth 12 m. The embankment
was constructed by first excavating 0.3 m below the ground surface, constructing the sand blanket to a level of 1.2 m above the
ground surface. Clayey sand was subsequently used to raise the embankment to its final height.

Figure 1.Embankment TS1 configuration

Numerical analysis, in the current study, was carried out using the two dimensional finite element program PLAXIS
(Brinkgreve, 2002). The different soil layers were modeled using fifteen-node triangular elements. The installed PVDs were
modeledin PLAXIS using five-node drainage line elements which areacting as seepage boundaries. The adopted finite element
mesh consisted of 11063 nodes and 1363 finite elements. The boundary conditions were adopted as follows: vertical
boundaries have zero lateral movements, i.e. roller support, and were considered to be impermeable. The bottom horizontal
boundary was restrained vertically and horizontally and was considered to be permeable, modeling a sand formation. A fine
mesh option was considered for the entire mesh. Moreover, the zone improved with the PVD was locally refined.
The elasto-plastic Mohr-Coulomb model was used to simulate the behavior of the embankment materials, both the sand
blanket and the clayey sand layer. The natural soils were modeled using the hardening soil model which is considered an
advanced model for simulating the behavior ofboth soft and stiff soils. In brief, Hardening Soil model consists of a fixed
416
ultimate surface and a moving cap surface to model the continuous hardening of the material (Brinkgreve, 2002). Table 1
presents a summary of the parameters that were adopted in the numerical analysis of the current study. The vertical and
horizontal permeability coefficients of the different layers were converted in the current study to their equivalent plain strain
permeabilities(Bergado et al., 1996 and Indraratna & Redana, 1999) using the approach proposed by Hird (1992). In this
approach, the spacing between the drains is kept as it is in the numerical model (permeability matching approach). A ratio of
ten was considered between the horizontal permeability of the natural clay to the horizontal permeability of the smear zone.
The diameter of the smear zone was considered to be twice the mandrel diameter (Bergado et al., 1993b).
Staged construction was performed to allow the strength of subsoil to increase as consolidation takes place under fill load
increments. Construction of subsequent stages commences when the strength of the soil is sufficient to maintain stability. In
the current study, the embankment construction was carried out in six stages of variable fill thicknesses (1.0m, 1.5m, 0.5m
,0.65m , 0.35m and 0.20 m consecutively). During stage (3) of the embankment construction, a 5m width and 1.5m high berm
was added. The berm width was increased to 7m during stage (4) of construction (Bergado et al., 2002).

Table 1. Materials parameters adopted in numerical analysis

Clayey Sand Very soft Medium Dense

Parameter/Layer Crust soft clay stiff clay
sand blanket clay stiff clay sand
Model Mohr-Coulomb Hardening soil model
Cohesion (Kpa) 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 1
Friction angle (°) 33 36 30 20 22 28 30 37
Dilatency angle (°) 5 3 - - - - - 5
Young's modulus (MPa) 40 60 - - - - - 50
Primary loading stiffness modulus (MPa) - - 10 0.45 0.65 5 12 60
Unloading/reloading stiffness - - 30 1.5 2.1 15 36 180
modulus(MPa)
Poisson's ratio 0.3 0.3 - - - - - -
Unloading/reloading Poisson's ratio - - 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
Horizontal permeability (m/day) 8 20 1.14 E -04 4.4 E -05 2.3 E -05 2.1 E -04 5.0 E -05 1
Permeability ratio** 1 1 1 1.7 2 2.1 1.67 1
** Permeability ratio=horizontal Permeability/ vertical Permeability

3 NUMERICAL MODELLING RESULTS

The settlement profile along the embankment base just after construction and long term settlement,are shown in figure 2-a.
Comparing the two settlement curves, the figure shows that,in the long term case the settlement underneath the embankment
increases while the heave outside the embankment toe does not significantly decrease. The settlement increase is due to the
consolidation of different clay formations that lie in-between and underneath the PVDs. The predicted and the monitored
horizontal displacement trends just after construction and the predicted long term horizontal displacement along a vertical line
passes through the crest edge, are shown in figure 2-b. The figure exhibits that the maximum lateral displacement occurred
below the ground surface, within the soft / very soft clay layer. In addition, the monitored and the predicted trends of the
horizontal displacement are identical. However, figure 2-b shows that the numerical analysis slightly overestimated the
horizontal displacementjust after construction, a deviation of about 18%.
400 Horizontal displacement (mm)
(a)
200 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240
0
0 -2
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 -4
-200
-6
(b)
-400 -8
-10
-600
-12
-800 -14
-16
-1000
-18

-1200 -20
Predicted settl. at E.O.C -22 Monitored hz displacement at E.O.C
-1400 Predicted long term settle. -24 Predicted hz displacement at end of construction
-26 Long term predicted hz displacement
-1600
Distance from the embankment C.L (m) -28

a-Vertical displacement profile at ground surface b- Horizontal displacement profile below the embankment crest
Figure 2.Embankment deformational response.

The time-settlement profiles at a point located at the intersection of the embankment centerline and the ground surface are
shown in figure 3. The figure presents the settlements estimated using numerical analysis, Asaoka’s method in addition to the
monitored settlements. The predicted settlements using both the numerical model and Asaoka’s method is slightly greater than
417
the monitored values especially during the construction period. However, the numerically predicted settlement exhibits a good
comparison with the monitored values until the end of the monitoring program, (around 400 days). Figure 3 shows, also, that
the numerically long term settlement is less than the value estimated by Asoka’s method, a difference of around 25%.
Variation of pore water pressure with time near the embankment centerline and at the toe, at different depths, is shown in
figure 4. Figure 4-a compares the dissipation of the excess pore water pressure near the embankment centerline and exhibits
that the maximum excess pore water pressure occurred at a depth of around 4m below the ground surface. At the toe,figure 4-
b, the maximum excess pore water pressure occurred at a depth of around 6m below ground surface. After the end of
construction, figure 4 shows that the rate of dissipation of the excess pore pressure near the embankment centerline is
greater than that at the toe. This can be explained as, near and outside the embankment toe there are no PVDs,while as, the
zone at the embankment centerline is surrounded by PVDs that conventionally speed the dissipation of the excess pore water
pressure due to shortening the drainage path.
Time (Days)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
0

-200 Observed settl.

Predicted settl., F.E.M (Plaxis)
-400 Predicted settl., Asaoka method

-600

-800

-1000

-1200

-1400

-1600

-1800

Figure 3. Settlement accumulation at point located on embankment centerline and at ground Surface.

Time (Days) Time (Days)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
0 0

-4 (a) -4

-8 -8
(b)
-12 -12

-16 -16

-20 -20

-24 -24

-28 -28

-32 -32
at depth = 2m at depth = 2m
-36 at depth = 4m -36 at depth = 4m
at depth = 6m at depth = 6m
-40 -40
at depth = 8m at depth = 8m
-44 -44

a. Excess pore water pressure distribution with time at 0.75 m away b. Excess pore water pressure distribution with time at the
from the embankment centerline at various depths embankment toeat various depths

Figure 4. Profiles of excess pore water pressure distribution with time .

4 SENSITIVITY STUDY RESULTS

A sensitivity analysis was carried out for the considered embankment to investigate the effect of some parameters that may
have an influence on the embankment deformational response. The numerically investigated parameters were PVD length,
PVD spacing, improved ground width, smear zone permeability and frictional angle of the soft clay.

4.1 Effect of the PVD length

To explore the effect of the PVD length on the embankment deformational response, the embankment under consideration was
reanalyzed considering that the PVDs were extended to the centerline of the medium stiff clay layer, i.e. 14m in length, and in
another case, the PVDs were installed to reach the end of this stratum, i.e. PVD length of 16m. The settlement accumulation
with time at a point located at the intersection of the embankment centerline and the ground surface is shown in figure 5. The
settlement trend along the embankment base and the horizontal displacement trend along a line through the edge of the
embankment crestare shown in Figure 6. These figures show that extending the PVD to 14 and 16m below ground surface to
reach the underlying stiff clay layer did not significantly affect the deformational response of the embankment.

418
 Time (Day)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
0

Observed settl.
-200
Predicted settl.,length (ref.)=12m
Predicted settl.,length =14m
-400
Predicted settl.,length =16m

-600

-800

-1000

-1200

-1400

-1600

Figure 5. Effect of the PVD length on settlement accumulation at intersection

Horizontal displacement (mm)
Distance from embankment C.L (m)
400 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260
(a) 0
200
-2
(b)
0 -4
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 -6
-200
-8
-400 -10
-12
-600
-14
-800 -16
-18
-1000
-20
-1200 -22 Long term predicted hz displacement ,length(ref.)=12m
Long term settle.,length(ref.)=12m
Long term settle.,length=14m -24 Long term predicted hz displacement,length=14m
-1400
Long term settle.,length=16m -26 Long term predicted hz displacement,length=16m
-1600 -28

ofembankment centerline and ground surface.

a. Vertical displacement profile at ground surface. b. Horizontal displacement profile at the embankment crest

Figure 6.Effect of the PVD length on the long term deformational response of the embankment.

4.2 Effect of the PVD spacing

To evaluate the effect of the PVD spacing, the embankment under consideration was reanalyzed considering the PVD spacing
to be 1m and 2m, in addition to 1.5m at the reference case. Figure 7 shows settlement accumulation with time at a point
located at the intersection of the embankment centerline and the ground surface. The figure exhibits that the final settlement is
independent of the PVD spacing. However, the degree of consolidation and the corresponding settlement at any time increases
with the decrease of the PVD spacing within the investigated range (1 to 2m). Therefore, in any project, the PVD spacing
should be optimized to reach the final settlement on the basis of time and economic restrictions.
Time (Days)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
0

-200 Observed settl.

Predicted settl.,spacing (ref.)=1.5m
-400 Predicted settl.,spacing=2m
Predicted settl.,spacing =1m

-600

-800

-1000

-1200

-1400

-1600

Figure 7. Effect of the PVD spacing on settlement accumulation at intersection

of embankment center line and ground surface.

4.3 Effect of the width of the improved ground

The influence of width of the improved ground beneath the embankment was also examined. Two values of a coverage ratio
Wr, which is defined as the ratio of the width of the zoneimproved by PVDs to the wholewidth of the embankment base,
were analyzed. These two cases are; thereference case where Wr =74% and the case where ground along the whole width of
the embankment was treated (Wr =100%). Figure 8 shows the accumulative settlement at point of intersection between the
embankment centerline and the ground surface with time. The figure indicates that the width of the improved ground has no
effect on the settlement at the considered point. Figures 9-a presents the effect of the improved width on the settlement
419
profilealong the embankment base.. The figure shows that, the increaseinthe coverage ratio, for the considered variation
range, has no significant effect on the embankment settlement,
settlement while the heave outside the embankment toe slightly
decreased with increasing the improved width. Figure 9-bshows thehorizontal
ntal displacement trend aalong a line passing
through the edge of the embankment crest. The figure exhibits that the increase of the improved width resulted in an
insignificant increase in the lateral displacement.
displacement

Figure8.. Effect of the coverage ratio(Wr) on settlement accumulation at

Intersectionof embankment center line and ground surface.
surface

a. Vertical displacement profile at ground surface. b. Horizontal displacement profile below the embankment crest
Figure9.Effect of the coverage ratio(Wr) on the long term deformational response of the embankment.

4.4 Effect of Smear Zone Permeability

The installation of vertical drains by means of mandrel causes some disturbance of the subsoil surrounding the mandrel. The
disturbed zone is known as the smear zone. This disturbance leads to a reduction of the permeability coefficient of this zone zone.
To investigate the effect of such permeability variation
variation on embankment behavior, various values of the ratio (Rs),defined as
the ratio of the coefficient of permeability of the original soil (kh) to that inside the smear zone (k'h), wereanalyzed. Figure 10
showss the settlement accumulation with time at a point located at the intersection of the embankment centerline and the
ground surface. The figure points out that when PVDs
PVD were considered as perfect drains (no smear, i.e. Rs = 1), the predicted
settlement profile was overestimated and the inclusion of smear effect significantly improved the prediction. A better match
between the predicted and the monitored data was noted when Rs was taken equal ten, which agrees with the results reported
by Bergado et al. (1993b) for soft
oft Bangkok clay. In addition, the figure
f shows that the final settlement of the system was not
affected by the value of the permeability ratio, in spite of a greater degree of consolidation
consolidation with time for the perfect drain.
Time (Day)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
0

Observed settl.
-200
Predicted settl.,Rs (ref.)=10
Predicted settl.,Rs =5
-400
Predicted settl.,perfect drain
-600

-800

-1000

-1200

-1400

-1600

Figure 10. Effect of the smear zone permeability on settlement accumulation at

intersection
tersection of embankment centerline
center and ground surface.
420
4.5 Effect of the Friction Angle of the Soft Clay

To assess the effect of the soft clay effective friction angle, ', values varying from 16o to 24o were implemented in the
numerical analysis. Figure 11-a shows the settlement accumulation with time at a point located at the intersection of the
embankment centerline and the ground surface. It can be concluded that the soft clay friction angle has no significant effect on
the predicted settlement trend. Whereas, figure 11-b shows that, thelong term horizontal displacement profile along a line
passing through the edge of the embankment crest, nonlinearly increaseswith the decrease of the friction angle. Reducing the
friction angle from 24oto16o, led to about 18% increase in the maximum horizontal displacement below the embankment crest.

5 CONCLUSIONS

This study numerically investigated the performance of a monitored earth embankment that was constructed on a very soft to
soft clay formation improved by PVDs. Two-dimensional plain strain finite element models were adopted in the current
numerical analyses. A good comparison was revealed between the monitored and the predicted responses. For the considered
embankment, the maximum settlement along the embankment base was found to occur near the embankment centerline.
Whereas, the maximum lateral displacement was found to occur below ground surface, within the upper soft/ very soft clay
layer. In addition, the rate of dissipation of the excess pore pressure near the embankment centerline was found to be greater
than that at the toe due to the existence of PVDs at the center.
Horizontal displacement (mm)
Time (Days)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280
0 0

Observed settl. -2
-200 -4
Predicted settl.,phi (ref.)=20
Predicted settl.,phi =16 -6
-400 Predicted settl.,phi =24 -8
-10
-600
-12
-800 -14
-16
-1000 -18
-20
-1200
-22 Long term predicted hz displacement ,phi (ref.)=20
-24 Long term predicted hz displacement ,phi =16
-1400
-26 Long term predicted hz displacement ,phi =24
-1600 -28
a. Settlement accumulation at intersection of embankment b. The long term horizontal displacement profile
centerline and ground surface. below the embankment crest
Figure 11.Effect of the variation of the friction angle of the soft clay on the embankment behavior.

A sensitivity study was carried out to highlight the influence of some design parameters that may have significant impactson
the performance and the cost of constructing such embankments. The conclusions obtained are as follows:
Eextending the prefabricated vertical drains through the entire thickness of clay formations is not necessary as it does not
significantly affect the deformational response of the embankment.
Decreasing the PVDs spacing, accelerates the consolidation process and the settlementrate at any time. But the final
settlement is independent of the PVDs spacing.
Increasing the ground improvement width across the embankment base to cover 100% instead of 74% of the total width
has no significant effect on the deformational response of the embankment, except for a slight reduction of heave near
the toe.
Neglecting the smear effect (considering perfect drain) results in overestimation of the predicted degree of consolidation,
while inclusion of smear effect significantly improves the predicted results
The variation of soft clay frictional angle, for the range considered in this study, did not significantly affect the
embankment settlement response.
The horizontal displacement below the embankment crest increases with the decrease of the friction angle in a nonlinear trend.

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