ISSMGE International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories ©, Vol. 5, Issue 3, p. 138 Application of Hybrid Drained-Undrained Model for Analyzing the Stability of Reinforced Soil Structures Over Soft Foundations with Prefabricated Vertical Drains David Espinoza, Senior Principal, Geosyntec Consultants, Columbia, Maryland, USA; email: despinoza@geosyntec.com Chunling Li, Senior Engineer, Soil and Land Use Technology, Inc., Glen Burnie, Maryland, USA; email: cli@salutinc.com Lucas, de Melo, Senior Principal, Geosyntec Consultants, Columbia, Maryland, USA; email: ldemelo@geosyntec.com Ranjiv Gupta, Senior Engineer, Freeport-McMoRan, Phoenix, Arizona, USA; email: rgupta2@fmi.com ABSTRACT: Prefabricated Vertical Drains (PVDs) are typically used for embankment construction over saturated soft cohesive soil deposits to accelerate consolidation and reduce construction time in the field. PVDs accelerate consolidation of thick soil deposits by reducing the drainage path from tens of meters to 1-2 meters depending on PVD spacing in the field. Current design methodologies typically consider the increase of shear strength due to accelerated consolidation, but still use undrained shear strength for the entire cohesive soil layer even after PVD’s are installed. However, for cases in which PVDs are closely spaced, which allows excess pore water pressure to dissipate relatively fast, the assumption of undrained conditions for design may be overly conservative and, in some cases, this assumption may render an embankment construction unfeasible, unless additional ground improvement techniques are used to significantly enhance the foundation strength. This paper presents a Hybrid Drained-Undrained (HDU) model for construction of embankments over soft soils that accounts for the improved soil drainage conditions after installation of PVDs in the assessment of the shear strength used for design. A field case study is presented where the HDU methodology was used for the design of a 2.4-km long MSE berm constructed over a PVD-improved soft soil site, allowing for significant cost savings. The HDU approach was implemented using limit equilibrium models during the design stages to analyze the global stability of the MSE berm at different stages. Finite element models calibrated using field monitoring data collected during construction showed factors of safety comparable with that calculated using the HDU approach, which further supports the suitability of the HDU approach for PVD design. KEYWORDS: Hybrid Drained-Undrained model, slope stability, prefabricated vertical drain, limit equilibrium, shear strength SITE LOCATION: Geo-Database INTRODUCTION Prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) can be used to accelerate consolidation of thick deposits of poorly draining materials. PVDs are installed relatively close to each other to reduce the drainage distance from tens of meters to 1 to 2 meters, thus reducing the consolidation time by orders of magnitude. Because PVDs provide conduits for the excess pore pressure to dissipate, their installation improves the drainage characteristics of the low permeability material increasing the consolidation speed during loading (Atkinson and Eldred 1981; Hansbo 1981; Holtz 1987; Holtz et al. 1991). As a result, the undrained shear strength of low permeability soils increases at a faster rate (i.e., higher undrained shear strengths are achieved sooner) due to the accelerated consolidation. In general, standard analysis of low-permeability soils with PVDs only considers its ability to speed up the consolidation process and the associated undrained shear strength increase, and neglects the significantly lower excess pore water pressure generation potential near the installed PVDs. Submitted: 03 October 2018; Published: 01 April 2020 Reference: Espinoza, D., Li, C., de Melo, L. and Gupta, R. (2020). Application of Hybrid Drained-Undrained Model for Analyzing the Stability of Reinforced Soil Structures Over Soft Foundations with Prefabricated Vertical Drains, International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories, Vol.5, Issue 3, p. 138 - 151. doi: 10.4417/IJGCH-05-03-01