Vacuum-induced lateral deformation around a vertical drain in dredged slurry

The horizontal strain in the vacuum preloading/dewatering of dredged slurry is significant to the apparent clogging effect and estimation of surface settlement around a drain; however, it has seldom been investigated in previous studies. In this study, a vacuum consolidation model test assisted by particle image velocimetry (PIV) technology was conducted. The displacement vector field was obtained through PIV analysis and image processing; it was used to visually observe the deformation features around a drain. Based on the displacement field, the vertical/horizontal strains at varied radial distances were calculated to explain the 'soil pile' and apparent clogging effect. From the strain distribution with radial distances, a significant lateral compression zone near the drain and an extension zone at farther areas were confirmed. Furthermore, a simple explicit model was established to evaluate the horizontal strain within a prefabricated vertical drain unit cell considering a horizontal attenuated vacuum and compression/extension zone. Finally, this method was applied to predict the horizontal displacement in the model test. The results showed that the proposed method can estimate the lateral displacement of soft clay slurry fairly well.