Prefabricated Vertical (PV)

Drains (Wick Drains)

Artificially-created vertical drainage paths

Prepared for ENCE 680 Advanced Soil Mechanics

By: Behzad Amir Faryar, Ph.D., P.E.

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 Benefits

1- To decrease the overall time for completion of primary

consolidation due to preloading.

2- To decrease the amount of surcharge required to achieve the

desired amount of precompression in the given time.

3- To increase the rate of strength gain due to consolidation of

soft soils when stability is of concern.

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Features:
1- Small three-dimensional
drainage structure
2- Moves water along
length of material
3- Inexpensive with high
flow rates
4- Non-woven textile wrap
prevents clogging

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Installation:
Vertical wick drain (which
comes in rolls roughly 300
m long) is installed utilizing
specialized wick drain
installation equipment. The
equipment is typically
mounted on an excavator
or crane (depending on the
depth of installation) and
pushes a mandrel into the
ground which carries the
wick drain inside to protect
it.
The wick drain is wrapped
around an anchor which
holds it in place at the
desired depth while the
mandrel is retracted.

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 Purpose
• Without Vertical Drains • With Vertical Drains

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 Applications
• Highway Embankments • Bridge Approach with Temporary Surcharge

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 Applications
• Improved Stability Due to Strength Gain with • Relieve Excess Porewater Pressures Due to Dynamic
Consolidation Compaction

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Design Considerations
The objective is to achieve
a desired degree of
consolidation within a
specified period of time.

With vertical drains the

overall average degree of
consolidation, Ṻ, is the
results of the combined
effects of horizontal (radial)
and vertical drainage.

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Consolidation due to vertical & radical drainage

D: diameter of the cylinder of influence of the drain

dw: the equivalent diameter of band-shaped drain. It is defined
as the diameter of a circular drain which has the same
theoretical radial drainage performance as the band-shaped
drain.

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Ideal Equation (Barron’s Solution)

The design of a PV drain

system requires the
prediction of the rate of
dissipation of excess pore
pressure by radial seepage
to vertical drain as well as
evaluating the contribution
of vertical drainage.

Assumption: the drain itself has infinite permeability,

i.e., no drain resistance.

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 Relationship of F(n) to D/dw for ideal case
(no soil disturbance or drain disturbance)

For typical values of D/dw,

F(n) can range from
approximately 2 to 2.85

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 Hansbo Equation
The previous equation was modified by Hansbo to be applied
to band-shaped PV drains and to include consideration of
disturbance and drain resistance factor.

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 Dw (the equivalent diameter of band-shaped drain)

It is defined as the diameter

of a circular drain which has
the same theoretical radial
drainage performance as
the band-shaped drain.

Equation 9A is considered to be appropriate for design use for conventional band-shaped drains having the ratio
a/b of approximately 50 or less.

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 Disturbance Factor (Fs) for Typical Parameters

For typical values of F(n),

the ratio of Fs/F(n) can
range from approximately 1
to 3.

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 Drain Resistance (without Disturbance)

For the case with drain resistance (without disturbance)

we have:

: At different depths
Or
: Averaging value

Please note that Uh varies with depth if there is drain

resistance but it is constant when there is no drain/well
resistance.

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 Spacing Patterns
• A square pattern may be easier to lay out and control in the field,
particularly for sites where surveying is difficult.
• A triangular pattern in preferred since it provides more uniform
consolidation between drains than does equivalent square pattern.

Notes: 1- The practical minimum drain spacing is usually about 3 ft (1 m) center to center.
2- Drain layout if typically a triangular or square pattern, with center to center spacing of 3 to 9 ft (1 to 3 m).
3- Drain length larger than 80 ft (25 m) may not improve the consolidation rate due to the effect of drain resistance.
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Spacing Patterns

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Soil Properties
• In general, it is considered appropriate to use soil property values
evaluated at the maximum vertical effective stress to be applied to
the compressible soil in the field.
• Evaluation of soils properties, i.e., ch (coefficient of horizontal
consolidation), kh (coefficient of horizontal permeability), ks
(coefficient of horizontal permeability in the disturbed soils), and cv
(coefficient of consolidation) is needed.

𝑘ℎ
𝐶ℎ = 𝑐𝑣
𝑘𝑣
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 𝒌𝒉
Representative Ratios of for Soft Clays
𝒌𝒗

- Soft clay is defined as a clay with an undrained shear strength of less than 1,000 psf.
- Very little published guidance is available to predict the ratio of kh/ks.
- The ratio of kh/kv is generally considered to range from 1 to 5 at strain level anticipated within the disturbed soil.
- Careful consideration, engineering judgment and possibly special testing are necessary to make realistic assessments of
kh/kv for particular project conditions.

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Design Approach (Iterative by nature!)
1. The objective of a PV drain design is to select the type, spacing, and length of a PV
drain to accomplish a required degree of consolidation within a specified time.
2. Evaluation of the project time requirements and the establishment of tolerable
amounts of post-construction settlement.
3. Subsurface explorations and lab testing program to provide detailed information on
site soil and drainage conditions and high-quality data on pertinent engineering
properties of the compressible soils.
4. Predictions of the total anticipated settlements at representative locations due to
primary consolidation and secondary compression.
5. Predictions of the rate of primary consolidation (t vs. Uv) at representative locations
for the case without PV drains and for cases with PV drains at several spacings.
6. Evaluations of the relative economic and technical merits of additional surcharging vs.
drain spacings where it is determined that the rate of primary consolidation
settlement must be accelerated to meet the project schedule.

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Good References
1. Barron, R.A., 1948, “Consolidation of fine-grained soils by drain
wells”, ASCE Trans, Paper 2346, v. 113, pp. 718-724.
2. Hansbo, S., 1979, “Consolidation of clay by band-shaped
prefabricated drains”, Ground Engineering, v. 12, no. 5, pp. 21-25.
3. Report No. FHWA/RD-86/168, 1986, “Prefabricated vertical drains”,
v. 1, Engineering Guidelines.

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