Study On The Simplified Methods For The Numerical Analysis Of Sand-Drained Ground

Although the consolidation of actual sand-drained ground is fully three dimensional, however, to simplify computation, many methods have been proposed, in which, sand-drained ground is converted into sand-wall ground and then analyzed with two dimensional FEM. But, about the efficiency of such simplification, there is little study. In this thesis, this is done on the basis of the available computational theory for sand-drained ground. The main work includes:(1) The principles and methods for converting a sand-drained ground into asand-wall ground are introduced in detail, including the consolidation theory for sand-drained ground under equal strain condition, and the 4 types of converting methods proposed by Indraratna, Zhao Weibing, Liu Jiacai, and Chen Lihong. The differences of these methods are compared, and their advantages and disadvantages are theoretically investigated.(2) Software PDSS is illustrated in detail which was developed based on the theory of Plane Deformation and Spatial Seepage (known as PDSS), including its key computer code, structure, and pre-and-after data processing.(3) The 4 types of converting methods are used in numerical consolidation analysis of a same sand-drained ground, and the results are compared with the one from PDSS method which is believed more reasonable than these converting methods. Through this, the effectiveness and precision of these converting methods are investigated in-depth.It has been shown that the converting methods introduced can give reasonable settlement for consolidation of sand-drained ground although the precision need to be enhanced, but they cannot give reasonable distribution of excess pore water pressure.