Preload with Wick Drains 6-1

Preload with Wick Drains

Often it is desirable to preload a normally consolidated soil to induce
settlement before a critical structure is built. The application of a preload
will tend to compact the soil so that only a small amount of settlement is
observed when the desired foundation is then constructed. By using wick
drains, the time required for this preload compaction to occur can be
significantly reduced. This tutorial shows how to apply a preload with
wick drains in Settle3D.

The finished product of this tutorial can be found in the file Tutorial 06
Preload.s3z in the Examples > Tutorials folder in the Settle3D
installation folder.

Topics covered

Pre-loading

Wick Drains

Staged loading

Time-dependent consolidation

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Preload Fill

If you have not already done so, run Settle3D by double-clicking on the
Settle3D icon in your installation folder. Or from the Start menu, select
Programs Rocscience Settle3D 2.0 Settle3D.

Project Settings
Open the Project Settings dialog from the toolbar or the Analysis
menu and make sure the General tab is selected. Set the Stress units =
Metric, stress as kPa, and Settlement units = Centimeters.

Select the Time-dependent consolidation analysis checkbox. A

message will appear informing you that the groundwater analysis option
will be turned on because it is required for consolidation analysis. Click
OK to close the warning. Set the Time Units = Days, and the
Permeability Units = meters/day.

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Click on the Stages tab, enter Number of Stages = 4, and enter the times
and names as shown.

Click OK to save your input and exit the dialog.

Assigning Water Table

Select Add Piezometric Line from the Groundwater menu. Keep the
default depth of 0m, and click OK. In the Assign Piezometric Line to Soils
dialog, click on Select All, then OK to close the dialog.

Adding the Preload

The preload is generally applied by laying down high permeability (sand)
fill over a large area. We will use the Add Pre-Load option to define a 50
meter x 50 meter preload fill of 1.5 meter height.

Select Add Pre-Load from the toolbar or the Loads menu. You will be
prompted to enter the polygon coordinates. Enter the following
coordinates in the prompt line:

25 25
-25 25
-25 -25
25 -25
c (for close)

You will see the Define Pre-Load dialog. First, turn OFF the Calculate
Height from Settlement checkbox (this is the back-analysis option
which we will be covering in the next tutorial). Enter a Fill Height = 1.5
meters, and leave all other parameters at the default settings.

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Select OK and the pre-load will be added to the model. Click in the Plan
View and select Zoom All (or press the F2 function key) to center the load
in the view. Your screen should look as follows.

NOTE: when you add a preload with the Add Pre-Load option, a point
query is automatically created at the center of the preload. This is
required for the preload back analysis option, but the point query is also
created even if you are not using the back analysis option.

Soil Layers
To set the soil properties, select Soil Properties from the Soils menu.
For simplicity, we will assume that there is only one soil type present.
For Soil Property 1, change the name to Soft Clay, set Cc to 0.8, Cr to 0.2
and Cv = Cvr = 0.0027. Leave all other input at the default settings. The
dialog should look like this:

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Click OK to close the dialog.

To change the thickness of the soil layer select Soil Layers from the
Soils menu. Set the layer thickness to 15 m as shown:

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 Preload with Wick Drains 6-6

Click on the Drainage Conditions button and make sure that the
Drained Ground Surface checkbox is selected. Click OK to close the
dialogs.

Preload Settlement I
Since the preload point query is already defined, we can immediately
view the results.

For the first stage, you will see no settlement since the pore water is
initially supporting the load. Click through the other stages and you will
see increasing settlement with time as the pore pressure dissipates.

Double-click in the 3D View to maximize the view. The results for the
fourth stage (1000 days) should look like this:

TIP: you can maximize the Plan View or 3D View by double clicking in
the view. Double-click again to return to the split-screen view.

You can see below the legend in the sidebar that the maximum
settlement is 70.7 cm after 1000 days. Change the plot to Excess Pore
Water Pressure using the drop-list in the toolbar. You will see significant
excess pore pressures at 1000 days, suggesting that the material is not
finished consolidating. Verify this by changing the plot to Degree of
Consolidation. You can see that the maximum degree of consolidation is
about 50%. To speed up the consolidation process we will now add wick
drains.

Double-click in the 3D View to restore the split-screen display.

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Wick Drains
First, click on the tab at the bottom to view the first stage (Add preload =
0d). Before we install wick drains, we need to specify the horizontal flow
behaviour in the material. Select Soil Properties from the toolbar. In
the Soil Properties dialog, for the Soft Clay material, click on the Wick
Drains button. We will assume that the horizontal coefficient of
consolidation is double the vertical, so set the ratio Ch/Cv to 2 as shown.

Click OK. Close the Soil Properties dialog by pressing OK.

To add an array of wick drains, select Groundwater > Wick Drains >
Add Wick Drain Region. Use the default wick drain properties, but
enter a drain length = 15, to correspond to the thickness of the soil layer.
Make sure that the installation stage is the first stage (Add preload = 0
d).

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Click OK to close the dialog. You will now be prompted to enter the
coordinates defining the wick drain region. We want the wick drain
region to completely cover the preload so enter the following coordinates:

30 30
-30 30
-30 -30
30 -30
c (for close)

Click in the Plan View and press the Zoom All button in the toolbar. Your
model should look like this for the first stage:

TIP: you can display the drains in the 3D View by clicking on the Display
Options button and selecting the Show Wick Drains checkbox.

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Preload Settlement II
Change the data type to Total Settlement and click through the stages.
You will see now that the maximum settlement at 1000 days is 139 cm
(about double the settlement observed without wick drains).

If you plot the Degree of Consolidation, you will see that the maximum at
1000 days is now 98.8%. Clearly the wick drains have been successful in
dissipating most of the excess pore pressure and speeding up
consolidation. Plot Excess Pore Pressure and view the results at each
stage to verify this.

Building Load

The purpose of the preload was to precondition the soil prior to

construction of a building so that the building settlement will be minimal.
We now wish to remove the preload and add the building load.

Stages
First we must add more stages. Go to Project Settings and click on the
Stages tab. Set the Number of Stages = 9, to add 5 new stages. Set the
stage times and names as shown:

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 Preload with Wick Drains 6-10

Click OK to close the dialog.

Remove Preload
We wish to remove the preload at stage 5 (1001 days). To do this, right-
click on the preload and select Pre-Load Properties from the popup menu.

In the dialog, set the removal stage to Remove preload = 1001 d.

Click OK to close the dialog.

Add Building
We will now simulate the construction of a two story building. To add the
building load, select Add Polygonal Load from the Loads menu. Type t
for table in the prompt line, and enter the following coordinates to create
an L-shaped building:

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Note that the coordinates of the last point are the same as the
coordinates of the first point. Click OK.

We will assume that each floor of the building represents a load of 15 kPa
and that each floor takes 100 days to build. In the Define Load dialog, set
the Pressure to 15 kPa. Now click the Advanced staging checkbox. Set
the load factor for the first five stages to 0. Set the load factor for stage 6
to 1. Set the load factor for stages 7, 8 and 9 to 2. The dialog should
appear as shown:

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Click OK.

You should now see the building in both the Plan View (left) and in the
3D View (right).

In stages prior to 1100 days, the building is displayed as a dotted

line, because the load is not applied (load factor = 0).

If you click on the stage tab Add building load = 1100 d, you will
see the building displayed as a solid line (load factor = 1).

For later stages, in the 3D View, you will see the building is twice
as high, because the load has been doubled from 15 kPa to 30 kPa
(load factor = 2).

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Results

To observe the settlement contours, select Auto Field Point Grid from
the Grid menu. Set the Number of gridpoints = 500 and click OK. A grid
will be generated and stress and settlement will be automatically
computed throughout the 3-dimensional volume. This will take a little
time, depending on the speed of your computer. Make sure the data type
is Total Settlement. Click through the stages to observe settlement with
time. Your model for Stage 9 (2000 days) should now look like this:

TIP: the plot will be clearer if you do not plot the wick drains. Go to View
Controls on the sidebar and clear the Wick Drains checkbox.

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You will see a maximum settlement of 138 cm under the building.

However, this includes the settlement due to the preload. To look at the
settlement in more detail, we can add another query point under the
building. From the Query menu, select Add Query Point. In the Query
Point dialog leave the Number of Vertical Points as Automatic and click
OK. Enter -12 -12 for the coordinates of the query point and hit Enter.

Right-click on the new query point and select Graph Query. For Plot
Type, choose Data vs. Stage Time. For Data to Plot choose Total
Settlement and ensure that the depth is 0 m.

Click OK. You should now see a graph of total settlement versus time.

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You can see significant displacement during the first 1000 days due to
the preload with wick drains. The preload is then removed at 1001 days
and there is a small amount of rebound due to unloading. At 1100 days,
the first floor of the building is added and a small amount of downward
settlement occurs. The second floor is added at 1200 days and further
settlement occurs. As time goes on, the soil continues to consolidate.

The amount of rebound and recompression is small because the soil is in

an overconsolidated state, so it is much stiffer than when it is being
initially loaded by the preload.

To examine the settlement of the building only, we can show the relative
displacement from the time of adding the building load. Go back to the
Plan View and right-click on the query point. Choose Graph Query and
set the Reference Stage to Add building first floor = 1100 d.

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Click OK.

In the Chart Controls on the right side of the window, in the Axes section,
set the Horizontal Minimum to 1100 and the Horizontal Maximum to
2000. Set the Vertical Minimum to -20 and the Vertical Maximum to 20.

In the Markers and Lines section, click the Show Point Markers
checkbox.

The graph will now look like this:

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You can see that the settlement due to the building alone is around 15 cm
at 2000 days.

Additional Exercises

Delete the building load completely and re-run the analysis, to observe
the rebound behaviour of the soil after the preload is removed. Add
another stage at 5000 days, to observe the long term rebound behaviour
with no building load. You should obtain the following results.

This concludes the Preload tutorial. You may now exit the Settle3D
program.

Settle3D v.3.0 Tutorial Manual