Modeling Electroosmosis and Surcharge Preloading Consolidation. II: Validation and Simulation Results

The results of numerical simulations for electroosmosis-surcharge preloading consolidation, obtained using the EC2 model, are presented. EC2 accounts for hydraulic and electroosmotic flows under the conditions of changing physical and geoelectrical properties of saturated compressible porous media. Verification checks for EC2 show excellent agreement of the pore pressure and degree of consolidation with analytical solutions for one- and two-dimensional small-strain consolidation. Similarly, excellent agreement is attained for two-dimensional large-strain consolidation occurring to a kaolinite layer subjected to an experimental test. The EC2 model is then used to investigate consolidation optimization for soil layers in three example problems. The electroosmosis-surcharge preloading combined method outperformed single-process methods, particularly where hydraulic conductivity is on an order of magnitude of 10-8m/s or lower. Applying voltage in steps optimizes electric power usage, as does cutting off the power supply when the degree of consolidation reaches approximately 80%.