Tutorial 04 Wick Drains

Embankment with Wick Drains 4-1
Embankment with Wick Drains

This tutorial will simulate the construction of an embankment on soft
clay. An array of wick drains will be used to speed the time to
consolidation.
The finished product of this tutorial can be found in the file Tutorial 04
Wick Drains.s3z in the Examples > Tutorials folder in the Settle3D
installation folder.
Topics covered
• Embankments
• Multiple materials
• Time-dependent consolidation analysis
• Wick Drains
Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Embankment model
If you have not already done so, run Settle3D by double-clicking on the
Settle3D icon in your installation folder. Or from the Start menu, select
Programs → Rocscience → Settle3D 2.0 → Settle3D.
Note that when the Settle3D program is started, a new blank document is
already opened, allowing you to begin creating a model immediately.
Project Settings
Open the Project Settings dialog from the toolbar or the Analysis
menu and make sure the General tab is selected. Set the Stress units =
Metric, stress as kPa, and the Settlement units = Centimeters.
Select the Time-dependent Consolidation Analysis checkbox. A message

will appear informing you that the groundwater analysis option will be
turned on because it is required for consolidation analysis. Click OK to
close the warning. Set the Time Units = Days and Permeability Units =
meters / day.

Click on the Stages tab. Set the Number of Stages = 7 and fill in the stage
times as shown.
Click OK to exit the dialog.
Adding the Embankment

To add the embankment, select Add Embankment from the Loads
menu. The embankment will be built in three layers. The first is a sand
blanket to enable drainage from the wick drains. The other layers are fill
for a road bed.
In the Embankment Designer dialog, set the number of layers to 3 and

the Base Width to 40 m. For layer 1 you can leave the default values. For
layer 2, change the stage to “Stage 2 = 30 d” and set the left bench and
right bench to 1 m and the height to 2 m. For layer 3, set the stage to
“Stage 3 = 60 d” and the height to 1.2 m. The dialog should look like this:

Click OK. You will see crosshairs and will be prompted to pick the near
point of the embankment centerline. You can either click in the Plan
View or manually enter the co-ordinates. Enter 0 -50 then press enter.
Now enter 0 50 and press enter. Select Zoom All (or press the F2 function
key) and you should now see the embankment in both the Plan View (left)
and in the 3D View (right). Note that you will only see the bottom layer if
you are looking at Stage 1. Click through the other stages to observe the
rest of the embankment construction.

Soil Layers
The 3D view shows a soil layer with a default thickness of 20 m. It is
assumed that rigid bedrock lies below the soil. In this section we will
change the soil properties and layer geometry.
Soil Properties
Select Soil Properties from the Properties menu. The top soil type is
weathered clay. Fill in the following soil properties:
• Change unit weight and saturated unit weight to 16 kN/m3 (the

non-saturated unit weight is ignored since the water table is at
the surface).
• Set Cc = 0.78, Cr = 0.16, e0 = 0.8 and OCR = 5
• For time-dependent consolidation, use the permeability, K and set

K = Kr = 0.0026 m/d
The dialog should look like this:

Click on the tab for Soil Property 2. Change the name to “Very soft clay”
and fill in the parameters as shown.
Now fill in Soil Property 3 as shown

Click OK to close the dialog.

Layer Thickness
To change the thickness of the soil layers select Soil Layers from the
Properties menu. Here you can add layers of different material and
change their thickness. Click the Insert Layer Below button twice, to
create a total of three layers, and enter the thickness as shown.
Click OK to close the dialog.

Field Point Grid

Select Auto Field Point Grid from the Grid menu. Set the Number of
grid points = 500 and the expansion factor = 2. Click OK.
A grid will be generated and stress and settlement will be automatically

computed throughout the 3-dimensional volume. By default, contours for
Total Settlement will be shown. This will take a little time, depending on
the speed of your computer. Click through the stages to observe
settlement with time. Your model for Stage 7 (400 days) should now look
like this:

Query Point
You can see from the contour plot that the maximum settlement after 400
days is 90.4 cm. What we now need to determine is whether or not the
soil has finished consolidating. To do this we will use a Query Point to
look at the excess pore pressures at depth.
From the Query menu, select Add Query Point. You will see the Query
Point dialog as shown.
Leave the default choice of Automatic. This will generate subdivisions

such that the discretization is denser near the ground surface where the
high stress gradients are likely to be.
Click OK and the cursor will become a cross-hairs in the Plan View. You
now need to specify the location of the Query Point. Enter the coordinates
0 0 and hit Enter to place the Query Point at the centre of the
embankment.
Now right-click on the query point and select Graph Query. For Plot
Type choose Depth vs. Data. For Data to Plot choose Excess Pore Water
Pressure. For Stages to Plot choose Select All.

Click OK to draw the graph. The graph should look like this:
You can see that at 400 days (brown line), excess pore pressure has not
dissipated from the lower layer, indicating that the embankment has not
finished settling. To speed up the settlement, we will add an array of wick
drains.

Wick Drains
Wick drains or prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) can be driven into

the soil at regular spacings to speed up consolidation. Pore water flows
horizontally towards the drains and then water flows freely up the drains
to the surface. This speeds up consolidation in two ways: i) horizontal
permeability is usually higher than vertical permeability so horizontal
flow is faster, ii) the lengths of the flow paths are significantly shortened.
In this tutorial we will show how wick drains can be used to speed up
consolidation under the embankment load.
Horizontal flow properties

Before we install wick drains, we need to specify the horizontal flow
behaviour in the different materials. Click the tab at the bottom to go
back to the Plan/3D View. Select Soil Properties from the toolbar or the
Properties menu. For the Weathered Clay, click on the Wick Drains
button. We will assume that the material is twice as permeable in the
horizontal direction as it is in the vertical so set the ratio of horizontal to
vertical permeability to 2 as shown.
Click OK. Repeat for the other 2 materials so that all material layers
have a horizontal permeability that is double the vertical. Close the Soil
Properties dialog.

Wick drain properties

To add an array of wick drains, select Add Wick Drain Region from the
Regions menu. Enter the following wick drain properties:
Note:
• The length of the drains is only 12 m, so they do not extend to the

bottom of the Soft Clay layer.
• We are assuming there is a smear zone. The smear zone results

from the driving of the drains into the soil. This generally causes
disturbance close to the hole and a decreased permeability.
• We have selected strip (band) drains, with an effective 10 cm

width and 5 mm thickness. An equivalent circular drain would
have diameter given by d = 2(b+t)/pi = 0.067 meters.
Click OK to close the dialog. You must now enter the coordinates of the
wick drain region in the Plan View. We want the wick drain region to
completely cover the embankment. You can use the mouse to graphically
enter the coordinates, or enter the following points in the prompt line:
22 52
-22 52
-22 -52
22 -52
c (for close)

Your model should look like this.
TIP: you can display the drains in the 3D View by clicking on the Display
Options button, selecting the 3D View tab and selecting the Show Wick
Drains checkbox.
Results
Choose Compute from the Analysis menu to re-compute the contours.
Your model should look like this for Stage 7:

You can see that the maximum settlement is now 267 cm.
Go back to the graph of excess pore pressure for the query point and it
should look like this:
Here you can see that at 400 days (brown line), the excess pore pressure
is close to zero throughout the model, except in the bottom 4 meters where
the wick drains do not penetrate. It is likely therefore that the soil has
mostly finished consolidating.
To check this, close this graph and draw another graph for the query
point by right clicking on the point in the 2D view and selecting Graph
Query. Chose Plot Type: Data vs. Stage Time and choose Total
Settlement at Depth: 0 as shown.

Click OK and the plot should look like this:
Here you can see that the rate of settlement is decreasing with time and
that the graph is nearly flat at 400 days, indicating that there should not
be much more settlement.
This concludes the Wick Drain tutorial; you may now exit the Settle3D
program.

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Embankment with Wick Drains 4-1

Embankment with Wick Drains

• Time-dependent consolidation analysis

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Select the Time-dependent Consolidation Analysis checkbox. A message

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Click OK to exit the dialog.

Adding the Embankment

In the Embankment Designer dialog, set the number of layers to 3 and

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

• Change unit weight and saturated unit weight to 16 kN/m3 (the

• Set Cc = 0.78, Cr = 0.16, e0 = 0.8 and OCR = 5

• For time-dependent consolidation, use the permeability, K and set

The dialog should look like this:

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Now fill in Soil Property 3 as shown

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Click OK to close the dialog.

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Click OK to close the dialog.

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Field Point Grid

A grid will be generated and stress and settlement will be automatically

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Leave the default choice of Automatic. This will generate subdivisions

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Wick drains or prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) can be driven into

Horizontal flow properties

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Wick drain properties

• The length of the drains is only 12 m, so they do not extend to the

• We are assuming there is a smear zone. The smear zone results

• We have selected strip (band) drains, with an effective 10 cm

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Your model should look like this.

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

Click OK and the plot should look like this:

Settle3D v.2.0 Tutorial Manual

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