A three-dimensional analysis is required to interpret the drainage behavior of an improved ground with vertical drains, and the macroelement method enables efficient interpretation considering the three-dimensional drainage effect of vertical drains u...
A three-dimensional analysis is required to interpret the drainage behavior of an improved ground with vertical drains, and the macroelement method enables efficient interpretation considering the three-dimensional drainage effect of vertical drains under two-dimensional plane strain condition. In this study, a novel finite element analysis program was developed by applying the macroelement method to the vacuum consolidation method used in ground improvement practice. The conventional macroelement method was used to calculate the amount of drainage from the vertical drain by setting the excess porewater pressure in the drainage material to zero; however, the program developed in this study was improved to consider negative excess porewater pressure as an actual vacuum consolidation condition. To verify the performance of the program, because of a comparison with the measurement values at the site where the vacuum consolidation method was applied, results predicted by the program and field measurement data showed similar settlement behavior.