SAALG Geomechanics did participate in a project to use DAARWIN potential on a Reclamation Land Project. The aim of the collaboration was to better understand the consolidation phenomenon by monitoring the land with some instruments across the different phases (Free consolidation, PVD consolidation and Vacuum consolidation) and, at the same time, evaluating if a Plaxis numerical model could reproduce a real reclamation land construction process.The monitoring data used for carrying out the backanalysis of the ground parameters were obtained from settlement plates, extensometers, and piezometers.
In that case, the soil parameters used in the Plaxis models were obtained from some borehole data and from in-situ tests (SPT, CPT and VST) and laboratory tests (triaxial, direct shear, etc.).
The first approach was a sensitivity analysis to adapt the number of drains on different construction phases (PVD and Vacuum consolidation).
Changing the number of drains (during PVD and Vacuum phases) while changing soil parameters allowed to reproduce the vertical displacements and the water pressure.
The methodology used consisted in reproducing the drains effectiveness by decoupling the permeabilities and fixing the number of drains.
A second approach was a backanalysis to calibrate the horizontal and vertical permeability considering the datasets measured over 66 days of Free consolidation + PVD consolidation. This analysis was performed by decoupling the horizontal and vertical permeability to represent water behavior properly; being Free Consolidation driven by vertical permeability whereas PVD and Vacuum Consolidation were driven by horizontal permeability.
Using just data from the settlement plate allowed different combination of soil parameters with similar vertical displacements.
Overall, by characterizing the ground parameters during consolidation phenomenon, it allowed to know when the ground reached the optimal conditions for construction to begin on it in complete safety. geotechnical, software engineer, geotechnical engineering software, construction AI, civil engineering software civil engineering, geotechnical, software engineer, geotechnical engineering, borehole
