A field trial for soft clay consolidation using electric vertical drains

Electro-osmosis (EO) has been employed successfully in a number of field cases in the past using metal electrodes. For large-scale field applications such as soft clay stabilization under reclaimed land from the sea, metal electrodes are unwieldy and expensive. With the advent of conducting plastics, it has become possible to use electrically conductive vertical drains in the same manner as prefabricated vertical drains for accelerated consolidation of soft clay. This paper presents some laboratory studies and a large field trail conducted with an electric vertical drain in a reclaimed land in Singapore. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.