Analysis of soil consolidation by vertical drains with double porosity model

Abstract The soil around a drain well is traditionally divided into smeared zone and undisturbed zone with constant hydraulic conductivity. In reality, hydraulic conductivity of the soil changes continuously and it may not be always appropriate to approximate its distribution with two zones. In this study, the horizontal hydraulic conductivity of the soil is described by an arbitrary function of radial distance. The horizontal flow under equal strain condition is analysed for a soil–drain system with a circular or regular polygonal boundary. It is found that the horizontal flow can be generally characterized with a linear equation in which the flow rate of water through soil–drain interface is proportional to the difference between the average excess pore pressure in the soil and the excess pore pressure in the drain well. The water exchange between the drain and the soil is analogous to that between fractures and matrix in a double porosity system, a popular conceptual model of fracture rocks. On the basis of this characterization, a simplified approach to analyse soil–drain systems is developed with one‐dimensional double porosity model (DPM). Analytical solutions for both fully and partially penetrating drains are derived. The solution for partially penetrating drains is compared with both numerical and approximate analytical results in literature. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.