Abstract:
In alleviating challenges associated to long-lasting consolidation of clay, highly permeable materials such as sand
and crushed aggregate are used as drain. Despite the fact that granular vertical drains are effective in shortening
the prolonged consolidation period of clay, limited information exist regarding applicability of scoria gravel as
vertical drain that no concisely documented information is observed in literatures. This study hence aimed at
evaluating suitability of scoria gravel as vertical drain in perpetuating consolidation process of soft clay under
road embankment. Finite element-based simulation was used to model the drains. To incorporate the effect of
gradual load increment on consolidation rate, staged construction approach was employed. Various dimensions
of scoria vertical drain (SVD) have been considered to investigate the effect of dimension parameters. Besides,
comparison has been made between performances of SVD and crushed aggregate drains (CAD) in impacting the
consolidation process. The numerical analysis result revealed that provision of group of SVD considerably
accelerated consolidation rate. With increase in drain diameter, the consolidation rate goes increasing whereas it
is inversely related to increase in drain spacing. For SVD installed at spacing of 2 m, diameter of 0.4 m and length
of 8 m any arbitrary settlement magnitude is achieved 25 days earlier than the case without drain. No consid erable difference was witnessed in performance of the square and triangular installation patterns though the
consolidation rate remains slightly faster in the case of triangular installation. In speeding up consolidation rate,
SVD was observed to perform slightly better than the CAD.
