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Procedia Earth and Planetary Science 5 (2012) 52 57

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and Planetary
Science
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2012 International Conference on Structural Computation and Geotechnical Mechanics

Unsaturated Consolidation in a Sand Drain Foundation by

Differential Quadrature Method
ZHOU Wan-Huana, TU Shuaib, a*
a
b

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Macau, Macao, China

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Macau, Macao, China

Abstract
Axisymmetric consolidation in a sand drain foundation is a common problem in foundation engineering. The radial
consolidation in unsaturated soils is studied on the basis of the framework of Fredlund's one dimensional
consolidation theory. Then differential quadrature method (DQM) is employed to obtain the solution. Finally, the
average degree of consolidation for the water and air, variation of excess pore-water pressure at different radius with
time factor are presented. It is found that the solutions of DQM are accurate and stable. DQM is easy to compile
computer programs when considering uniform initial pore-water distribution condition.

2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Society for
2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Resources, Environment and Engineering.
Keywords: Axisymmetric consolidation; differential quadrature method; foundation; sand drain; unsaturated soils

1. Introduction
Consolidation, as one important issue of geotechnical engineering, is a process of soil volume
decreasing when soil is subjected to stress increase. For saturated soil, Terzaghi[1] derived the classical
theory of one-dimensional consolidation. But in real cases, many engineering practices are above the
water table, thus unsaturated soils which include water, air and solid phases. Many researchers have
contributed to the theory and analysis of unsaturated consolidation. Biot[2] derived a general theory of
consolidation for unsaturated soil which had occluded air bubbles. Blight[3] presented a consolidation
equation for the air phase where the air was in a dry, rigid, unsaturated soil. Based on Biots theory of
consolidation, Scott[4] derived a consolidation equation for unsaturated soils with occluded air bubbles
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +853-8397-4469; fax: +853-2883-8314.
E-mail address:hannahzhou@umac.mo.

1878-5220 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Society for Resources, Environment and Engineering.
doi:10.1016/j.proeps.2012.01.009

ZHOU Wan-Huan and TU Shuai / Procedia Earth and Planetary Science 5 (2012) 52 57
Author name / Procedia Earth and Planetary Science 00 (2011) 000000

by changing void ratio and degree of saturation. Barden[5] presented an analysis for one-dimensional
consolidation of compacted, unsaturated clay. Ferdlund and Hasan[6] proposed a three phase, decoupled,
one-dimensional consolidation theory for unsaturated soils. According to Fredlunds one-dimensional
consolidation theory, Darcy law and Ficks law, Qin et al. [7] obtained a semi-analytical solution for
consolidation of unsaturated soils with free drainage well.
Finite element method (FEM) and Finite difference method (FDM) are two most popular methods to
obtain solutions of unsaturated consolidation. Comparing with these two numerical methods, differential
quadrature method (DQM) is a more efficient numerical method for the rapid solution of linear and
nonlinear partial differential equations involving one dimension or multiple dimensions. The fundamental
idea of the DQM is that the derivatives of each node in a continuous function can be expressed as a
weighted linear sum of function values at all grid points. Malik and Civan[8] have shown that the DQM is
better than FEM and FDM in numerical accuracy as well as computational efficiency.
In this paper, on the basis of the framework of Fredlund's one dimensional consolidation theory of
unsaturated soils, Darcys law and Ficks law, the polar governing equations of excess pore-air pressure
and pore-water pressure of axisymmetric consolidation are obtained. Then, DQM is employed to obtain
the solution to the problem. Finally, the behaviours of axisymmetric consolidation of unsaturated soils in
the sand drain foundation have been analyzed. The average degree of consolidation for the water and air,
variation of excess pore-water pressure at different radius with time factor are presented.
2. Governing equations
2.1. Mathematical model of a sand drain foundation
The axisymmetric consolidation of unsaturated soils in a sand drain foundation is described in a
schematic diagram shown in Fig. 1, where H and re are the thickness and radius of the unsaturated soil
layer. The radius of sand drain is rw . All the surfaces are impermeable to water and air except the wall of
sand drain. kw and ka are the permeability coefficients of water and air and are assumed constants. The
coordinate origin is selected at the centre of the top surface and the Z coordinate is positive downward.
A uniform loading q is applied at the top surface of the unsaturated soil layer. The seepage of water and
air is considered only in radial direction.

Fig. 1. (a) The sectional view of sand drain foundation; (b) The vertical view of sand drain foundation

2.2. Governing equations

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54

ZHOU
Wan-Huan
and TU Shuai
EarthScience
and Planetary
Science
5 (2012) 52 57
Author
name / Procedia
Earth/ Procedia
and Planetary
00 (2011)
000000

Under the framework of Fredlund's one dimensional consolidation theory of unsaturated soils, Darcys
law and Ficks law, the polar governing equations of excess pore-air pressure and excess pore-water
pressure of axisymmetric consolidation are obtained. The governing equations for the water and air
phases can be written as:

uw
2ua 1 ua
2uw 1 uw
Wa ( 2
) Ww ( 2
)
t
r r
r r
r
r
ua
2ua 1 ua
2uw 1 uw
Aa ( 2
) Aw ( 2
)
t
r r
r r
r
r
mw mw
CwCva
Cvw
Cva
C Cw
; Ww
; Aa
; Aw a v ; Cw 1k w 2 ;
where Wa
1 CaCw
1 CaCw
1 CaCw
1 CaCw
m2
a
k
k
RT
m2
a
Cvw w w ; Ca
; Cva
;
atm
a
w m2
u atm n0 (1 Sr 0 )

(1
)
u
n
S
a
a
a
a
0
r0
)
gu0 M (m1k m2
m1k m2
a
a
(u0 )2
(u0 )2

(1)
(2)

uw and ua are the excess pore-water pressure and the excess pore-air pressure, respectively. t is the time
w
domain; m1k is the coefficient of water volume change with respect to a change in the net normal stress
a
(q u ) ; m2w is the coefficient of water volume change with respect to a change in matric suction
(ua uw ) ; w is the unit weight of water phase (9.81kN / m3 ) ; R is the universal air constant
(8.314J / molK) ; T is the absolute temperature
( 298.15K ); g is the gravitational
acceleration; M is
a
a

the molecular mass of air (29kg / kmol) ; u0 is absolute pore-air pressure (i.e. u
u0a uatm ); uatm is
0
atmospheric pressure (101.3kPa) ; n0 and Sr 0 are the initial porosity and initial degree of saturation
a
before loading; m1k is the coefficient of air volume change with respect to a change in the net normal
a
a
stress (q u ) ; m2 is the coefficient of air volume change with respect to a change in matric suction
a
w
(u u ) .
2.3. Boundary and initial conditions
As shown in Fig.1, the wall of sand drain is permeable and other surfaces are impermeable, the
boundary conditions for radial consolidation are:
a
w
u
(rw , t ) u
(rw , t ) 0 ; ua (re , t ) r u w (re , t ) r 0

(3)

The initial condition can be written as:

a
w

ua (r,0) u
u0w
0 ; u (r,0)

(4)

3. Differential quadrature solution

Bellman et al. [9] and Bellman and Casti[10] introduced DQM as an alternative numerical method for
solving partial differential equations. DQM is that a partial derivative of a function is approximated by a
weighted linear sum of the function values at given discrete points. Chen et al. [11] employed DQM to
solve one-dimensional consolidation problem in multi-layered soils.
Consider (x) on the domain 0 x a and the domain is dispersed as N points. According to
DQM, the general differential quadrature approximation of the function at the ith discrete point is given
by:

r
xr

x xi

Dik( r )k
k 1

(i 1,2,..., N)

(5)

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ZHOU Wan-Huan
and TU
Shuai / Earth
Procedia
and Planetary
(2012) 52 57
Author name
/ Procedia
andEarth
Planetary
Science 00Science
(2011) 5000000

where Dik are the weighting coefficient, r N . In this paper, the method derived by Quan and
Chang[12] which uses Lagrange polynomial is adopted to determine the weighting coefficients.
The soil layer is dispersed in the radial direction and the number of discrete points is N . Then, in order
to solve the equations conveniently, the local coordinate was introduced. The relationship between
local coordinate and integral coordinate is:
(r )

r (0.5 )r1 (0.5 )rN ,(0.5 0.5)

where r is the integral coordinate of soil layer and

and Nth point, respectively.
The differential of Eq. (6) can be expressed:

(6)

r1 , rN are the integral coordinate value of 1th point

dr
(rN r1 )d
hd

(7)

where h re rw .

The relationship partial differential of local coordinate and integral coordinate by using DQM is shown
as follows:

uw 1 N (1) w
D u

r h 1
,( 1,2,..., N ),
2 w
N
(2) w
u 1
D u
r 2 h2
1

uw 1 N (1) w
D u

r h 1
,( 1,2,..., N )
2 w
N
(2) w
u 1
D u
r 2 h2
1

(8)

where u and u are the pore water and pore air pressures of the th point; D and D are the
weighting coefficient matrices of the first order and second order derivatives, respectively.
a
w
s 2
a
w
Let u = u q , u = u q ,
, T kwt ( wm1k h );
r [1 (N 1) 0.5,2 (N 1) 0.5,...,(N 2) (N 1) 0.5]'
s
m
m1wk m1ak . Substituting Eq. (8) into the governing equations Eq. (1) and Eq. (2), the governing
1k
equation for the water phase and air phase by using DQM are as follows:
w

(1)

uw Wa wm1sk N 1 (2) a
1 N 1 (1) a
[( D u D(2)1 u1a D(2)N uNa ) ( D

u D(1)1 u1a D(1)N uNa )]

T
kw
r 2
2

W ms N 1 (2) w
1 N 1 (1) w
w w 1k [( D
u D(2)1 u1w D(2)N uNw ) ( D
u D(1)1 u1w D(1)N uNw )]
kw
r 2
2
ua Aa wm1sk N 1 (2) a
1 N 1 (1) a
[( D u D(2)1 u1a D(2)N uNa ) ( D

u D(1)1 u1a D(1)N uNa )]

T
k
r
2
2

w
N 1
Aw wm1sk N 1 (2) w
1
(1) w
[( D u D(2)1 u1w D(2)N uNw ) ( D

u D(1)1 u1w D(1)N uNw )]

kw
r 2
2

(2)

(9)

(10)

The boundary condition and initial condition Eq. (3) and Eq. (4) are transformed into:
w
a
u1
u
0 ; uNw r uNa r 0
1

w
t 0

u /q ; u
w
0

a
t 0

u /q
a
0

(11)
(12)

Substituting Eqs. (11) and (12) into Eqs. (9) and (10), one can obtain:
Vw

T
a
V

Wa
W
1
1
(AVa BVa ) w (BVw BVw )
G
G
r
r
Aa
A
1
1
(AVa BVa ) w (AVw BVw )
G
G
r
r

(13)
(14)

56

ZHOU
Wan-Huan
and TU Shuai
EarthScience
and Planetary
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w
w
w
a
G
where Vw [u

[u2a , u3a ,..., uNa 1 ]' ;

2 , u3 ,..., uN 1 ]', V

kw ( wm1sk ); A
A1 A2 ; B = B1 +B2 ;

D22(2) D2((2)N 1)
D22(1) D2((1)N 1)
D21(2)
D2(2)N

A1

A2 inv(M) Q
;
; B1
;
(2)
(2)
D((2)

D((1)N 1)2 D((1)N 1)( N 1)

D((2)

N 1)2 D( N 1)( N 1)

N 1)1 D( N 1) N
D21(1)
D2(1)N
1

B2 = inv(M) Q
; M (1)
DN1
D((1)N 1)1 D((1)N 1) N

0
(1) ; Q
DNN

0
0
(1)
.
(1)
DN 2 DN ( N 1)

Therefore, the governing equations of water and air were translated into two sets of ordinary
differential equations (ODE). The solutions of ODEs can be obtained by using Rong-Kutta method.
4. Case study
Consider a vertical loading q 100kPa applied on the top surface of soil layer (Fig.1). Some other
10
parameters are initial porosity n0 0.5 , initial degree of saturation Sr 0 0.8 , kw 10 m / s ,
w
-5
1
w
4
1
a
4
1
a
4
1
m1k 510 kPa , m2 2 10 kPa , m1k 2 10 kPa , m2 10 kPa , rw 0.5m , re 4.5m , and
uatm 101.3kPa . Consider an uniform initial excess pore-water and pore-air pressure distribution:
10

u0a 5
kPa, u0w 40kPa . The permeability speed of water is assumed as kw 10 m / s , the permeability
ratio of air and water is assumed as ka / kw 0.1 in the analysis.
In unsaturated soils, the average degree of consolidation with respect to water phase and air phase are
given by Fredlund and Rahardjo[13].
2h

2h

2h

2h

Uw
1 uwd y u0wd y ,Ua
1 ua d y u0a d y

(15)

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100

0.45

(a)

1.0E-06

(b)

0.4

Uw

0.35
0.3

uw/q

U(%)

where Uw , Ua are the average degree of consolidation with respect to water phase and air phase,
a
w
respectively; u0 and u0 are the initial pore-water and pore-air pressure, respectively.
Fig. 2(a) shows the curves of average degree of consolidation with respect to water and air phases. The
number of discrete points is N 9. It can be seen that at the value of T 1.0 104 , the consolidation of
air phase and water phase begins. With the increase of time factor T , the consolidation of water phase
and air phase become faster. Fig. 2(b) shows the variation of excess pore-water pressure at different
radius with time factor. It can be seen that the closer to the sand drain, the earlier excess pore-water
pressure begins to dissipate.

Ua

0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1

0.05
1.0E-05

1.0E-04

1.0E-03

1.0E-02

1.0E-01

1.0E+00

1.0E+01

r=1m
r=2m
r=3.5m

0
1.0E-06 1.0E-05 1.0E-04 1.0E-03 1.0E-02 1.0E-01 1.0E+00 1.0E+01

Fig. 2. (a) The average degree of consolidation U for the water and air phases with time factor
water pressures uw / q at different radius r(m) with time factor T .

T;

(b) Variation of excess pore-

ZHOU Wan-Huan
and TU
Shuai / Earth
Procedia
and Planetary
(2012) 52 57
Author name
/ Procedia
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Planetary
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(2011) 5000000

5. Conclusion
In this paper, based on the framework of Fredlund's one dimensional consolidation theory of
unsaturated soils, the governing equations of axisymmetric consolidation of unsaturated soils are
presented. Differential quadrature method (DQM) has been employed to obtain the solution. A case study
has been presented for the analysis of unsaturated consolidation in a sand drain foundation. The average
degree of consolidation for the water and air and the variation of pore water pressure with time factor at
different radius have been presented. It is found that the DQ solution delivers accurate and stable
solutions for unsaturated consolidation problems. Due to the uniform matrix structure of the DQ
formulations, it is easy to compile computer programs when considering uniform initial pore-water
distribution conditions.
Acknowledgements
The financial support from the research committee of the University of Macau under the research grant
MYRG189 (Y1-L3)-FST11-ZWH is gratefully acknowledged.
References
[1] Terzaghi K., Theoretical soil mechanics. New York: Wiley,1943.
[2] Biot MA. General theory of three-dimensional consolidation. J Appl Phys 1941; 12(2):155-164.
[3] Blight GE. Strength and consolidation characteristics of compacted soils. Phd dissertation. University of London, England;
1961.
[4] Scott RF. Principles of soil mechanics. USA: Addison Wesley Publishing Company; 1963.
[5] Barden L. Consolidation of compacted and unsaturated clay. Geotechnique 1965; 15(3):267-286.
[6] Fredlund DG, Hasan JU. One-dimensional consolidation theory of unsaturated clay. Geotechnique 1979; 17(3): 521-531.
[7] Qin AF, Sun DA, Yang LP, Weng YF. A semi-analytical solution to consolidation of unsaturated soils with the free drainage
well. Computers and Geotechnics 2010; 37: 867-875.
[8] Malik M, Civan F. A comparative study of differential quadrature and cubature methods vis- -vis some conventional
techniques in context of convection-diffusion-reaction problems. Chem Eng Sci 1995; 50:531-547.
[9] Bellman R, Kashef BG, Casti J. Differential quadrature: a technique for the rapid solution of nonlinear partial differential
equations. J Comput Phys 1972; 10: 40-52.
[10] Bellman RE, Casti J. Differential quadrature and long-term integration. J Math Anal Appl 1971; 10; 34(2):235-238.
[11] Chen RP, Zhou WH, Wang HZ, Chen YM. One-dimensional nonlinear consolidation of multi-layered soil by differential
quadrature method. Computers and Geotechnics 2005; 32(5): 358-369.
[12] Quan JR, Chang CT. New insights in solving distributed system equations by the quadrature method I Analysis. Comput
Chem Eng 1989; 13: 779-788.
[13] Fredlund DG, Rahardjo H. Soil mechanics for unsaturated soils. John Wiley and Son, Inc; 1993.

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