Long-term Viscoplastic Behaviour of Embankments Built on Improved Soft Soil Using Vertical Drains

In this paper, a nonlinear elastic visco-plastic model is incorporated in the general consolidation equation to investigate the time dependent performance of embankments constructed over deep soft soil deposits stabilised with prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) and preloading. To model vertical and radial consolidation processes, a finite difference formulation is implemented for fully coupled axisymmetric consolidation. The developed numerical model is validated against Vasby test fill with the available long-term settlement monitoring results for the soft clay deposit improved with PVDs assisted preloading. Practicing engineers can adopt the developed code and guidelines to predict the long term performance of embankments on soft soil consolidated using preloading.