Introduction

In anticipation of the construction of a new airport in Bangkok, Thailand, full-scale test embankments were constructed on the soft clay at the site to study the effectiveness of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) for accelerating the consolidation and dissipation of the excess pore-water pressures resulting from fill placement. The results of the field tests have been studied and analyzed by two different research groups: one at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, the other at the University of Wollongong in Australia. The findings are presented in two papers listed in the reference section below.

We have re-analyzed portions of this case history to demonstrate how GeoStudio can be used to model the effect of PVDs in the consolidation of soft soils. We have not attempted to replicate all aspects of the published information; rather, our objective is only to provide sufficient information to show how GeoStudio users can do this type of geotechnical numerical modeling.