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2006

Laboratory Evaluation of Smear Zone and

Correlation between Permeability and Moisture
Content
I. Sathananthan
University of Wollongong

B. Indraratna
University of Wollongong, [email protected]

http://ro.uow.edu.au/engpapers/105

Publication Details
This article was originally published as Sathananthan, I and Indraratna, B, Laboratory Evaluation of Smear Zone and Correlation
between Permeability and Moisture Content, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 132, 2006, 942. Copyright
American Society of Civil Engineers. Original journal available here.

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 Laboratory Evaluation of Smear Zone and Correlation
between Permeability and Moisture Content
Iyathurai Sathananthan1 and Buddhima Indraratna, F.ASCE2

Abstract: In this study, the extent of the smear zone and the reduction of permeability and water content within the smear zone were
investigated using a large-scale consolidometer. The installation of vertical drains by means of a mandrel causes significant disturbance of
the subsoil surrounding the mandrel, resulting in a smear zone. The extent of the smear zone for Moruya clay 共New South Wales,
Australia兲 was estimated on the basis of normalized permeability and the reduction of water content by taking undisturbed samples
共horizontally and vertically兲 at different locations. This study reveals that a significant reduction in water content and horizontal perme-
ability takes place towards the drain, whereas the variation in the vertical permeability is negligible. The smear zone for Moruya clay was
found to be 2.5 times the equivalent radius of the mandrel with the horizontal permeability varying from 1.09 to 1.64, an average of 1.34
times smaller than that of the undisturbed zone. Finally, a correlation between the permeability decrease and water content reduction
within smear zone is proposed.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲1090-0241共2006兲132:7共942兲
CE Database subject headings: Clays; Laboratory tests; Water content; Permeability.

Introduction of the undisturbed zone 共khu兲. Both the smear zone diameter and
its permeability are often difficult to quantify and determine from
Even though there are a variety of soil improvement techniques laboratory tests. So far, there is no comprehensive or standard
available to stabilize the soft ground, the application of preload- method for measuring them. Indraratna and Redana 共1998兲 pro-
ing with prefabricated vertical drains is still regarded as one of posed that the estimated smear zone 共ds兲 could be as large as 4 to
the classical and popular methods in practice. Nevertheless, the 5 times equivalent drain diameter 共dw兲 and that the horizontal to
installation of vertical drains in the field causes significant re- vertical permeability ratio 共kh / kv兲 is close to unity in the smear
zone. This was verified using a specially designed large-scale
molding of the subsoil, especially in the immediate vicinity of the
consolidometer. In the Indraratna and Redana 共1998兲 approach,
mandrel. The resulting smear zone will have reduced lateral per-
the vertical permeability was shown to be relatively unaffected by
meability, which adversely affects soil consolidation.
mandrel installation. Therefore in the current analysis the normal-
The combined effect of permeability and compressibility
ized lateral permeability 共kh / khu兲 was taken to be more realistic
within the smear zone causes a different behavior from the undis- than the kh / kv ratio in determining the effect of smear. In the
turbed soil. Predicting soil behavior surrounding the drain re- current research, an attempt is made to characterize the smear
quires an accurate estimation of the smear zone properties. zone, based on permeability and water content measurements,
Classical solutions 共Barron 1948; Hansbo 1981; Indraratna and using large-scale laboratory tests.
Redana 1997兲 have considered the influence of the smear zone
with an idealized two-zone model, where the smear zone is the
disturbed region in the immediate vicinity of the drain, and the Experimental Setup and Testing Procedure
outer zone is the intact 共undisturbed兲 region.
The writers propose that the key parameters necessary to char- The large-scale radial drainage consolidometer cell consists of
acterize the smear effect are the smear zone diameter 共ds兲 and the two cylindrical 共stainless steel兲 half sections, each of which has a
normalized lateral permeability 共kh / khu兲, i.e., the coefficient of flange running the length of the cylinder so that they can be
lateral permeability 共kh兲 over the maximum lateral permeability bolted together. The cell dimensions are 650 mm internal
diameter⫻ 1,040 mm height⫻ 8 mm thick, and it has a 1.5 mm
1
Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Engineering, Univ. of Wollongong, thick Teflon sleeve fitted around the internal cell boundary to
Wollongong City, NSW 2522, Australia. reduce friction. The bolted cell 共Fig. 1兲 is mounted on a steel
2
Professor of Civil Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Univ. base. The loading can be applied by an air jack compressor
of Wollongong, Wollongong City, NSW 2522, Australia 共corresponding system via a piston. An LVDT 共linear variable differential trans-
author兲. E-mail: [email protected] former兲 transducer is placed on top of the piston to monitor sur-
Note. Discussion open until December 1, 2006. Separate discussions face settlement, and pore pressure transducers are also installed
must be submitted for individual papers. To extend the closing date by
to measure the excess pore water pressures at various depths.
one month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Managing
Editor. The manuscript for this technical note was submitted for review The main steps involved in the test are the preparation of clay
and possible publication on March 21, 2005; approved on December 7, deposit, installation of the prefabricated vertical drain 共PVD兲, and
2005. This technical note is part of the Journal of Geotechnical and the collection of samples at the end of consolidation to measure
Geoenvironmental Engineering, Vol. 132, No. 7, July 1, 2006. ©ASCE, the permeability and water content. Given the dimensions of the
ISSN 1090-0241/2006/7-942–945/$25.00. large cell, it was almost impossible to obtain undisturbed samples

942 / JOURNAL OF GEOTECHNICAL AND GEOENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING © ASCE / JULY 2006

 Fig. 3. Location of cored samples

Fig. 1. Large-scale radial drainage consolidometer A single prefabricated vertical band drain 共100 mm⫻ 3 mm兲
was installed at a rate of 0.5 m / min using a specially designed
125 mm⫻ 25 mm rectangular mandrel 共Fig. 2兲. The mandrel ra-
of this size. Therefore commercially available reconstituted allu- dius based on the equivalent area 共rm兲 is 31.5 mm. The end of the
vial Moruya clay was used to prepare the samples. drain was attached to a “shoe” to ensure the drain remained an-
First, the clay was thoroughly mixed with water and kept in a chored in the predetermined depth 共0.95 m from the surface兲
closed container for several days to ensure full saturation. Then when the mandrel was withdrawn. The consolidation pressure
the cell was filled with the prepared reconstituted clay in 150 mm was applied in stages up to a maximum of 200 kPa. Finally, at
layers by compacting or vibrating to expel any trapped air before the completion of consolidation, 32 soil samples were collected
adding the next layer, to a total height of 950 mm. To ensure that at different vertical and radial locations 共Fig. 3兲 to determine
the clay was fully saturated, a couple of small cylindrical speci- the permeability and water content using the standard oedometer
mens 共38 mm⫻ 76 mm兲 were cored and tested in the triaxial test. The detailed testing procedure is explained elsewhere by
equipment. Skempton’s B parameter of 0.99 or more was deter- Indraratna and Redana 共1998兲.
mined. After specimen preparation, a layer of filter cloth was
placed on top of the clay followed by the top plate. Subsequently,
the load cell was installed on top of the plate to measure the Presentation of Test Results and Analysis
applied load from the pressure chamber. An initial preconsolida-
tion pressure of 20 kPa was applied prior to drain installation. Prediction of Smear Zone from Permeability
Measurements
At the end of the large-scale consolidation test, horizontal and
vertical samples were cored at 0.5 m below the surface. Varia-
tions of the horizontal and vertical coefficient of permeability
共kh and kv兲, the permeability ratios 共kh / kv兲, and the normalized
lateral permeability 共kh / khu兲 for different mean applied consolida-
tion pressures are plotted in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4共a兲 shows that towards the drain, the horizontal perme-
ability decreases significantly within a certain radial distance,
whereas Fig. 4共b兲 shows that the variation in vertical permeability
with radial distance is marginal. This indicates that the mandrel
installation mainly affects the horizontal 共lateral兲 permeability,
which can be explained by cylindrical cavity expansion with ac-
companying lateral 共radial兲 soil compaction. The permeability an-
isotropy is shown in Fig. 4共c兲, which clearly demonstrates the
reduction of kh / kv ratios in the smear zone. In contrast, Fig. 4共d兲
shows the normalized lateral permeability 共kh / khu兲. It is of interest
to note that irrespective of the applied pressure, all plots are con-
Fig. 2. Mandrel, guider, and pore pressure transducer assembly fined within a narrow band, clearly defining the extent of the

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 Fig. 5. Variation of 共a兲 water content; 共b兲 normalized water
content reduction with radial distance at a depth of 0.5 m

of the water content with depth and radial distance is shown in

Fig. 4. Variation of 共a兲 horizontal permeability; 共b兲 vertical
Fig. 6 for an applied pressure of 200 kPa. As expected, the water
permeability; 共c兲 permeability ratio; and 共d兲 normalized lateral
content decreases towards the drain, and also the water content is
permeability, with radial distance
greater towards the bottom of the cell at all radial locations.
Based on these curves, the extent of smear zone can be estimated
smear zone. From these data, one may conclude that the smear to be around 2.5 times the equivalent mandrel radius. This agrees
zone is about 2.5 times the equivalent mandrel radius 共rm兲, and well with the estimated extent of smear zone based on both the
that the normalized lateral permeability in the smear zone varies kh / kv ratio 关Fig. 4共c兲兴 and the kh / khu ratio 关Fig. 4共d兲兴.
between 1.09 and 1.64 with an average of 1.34. Moreover, very
close to the drain, the kh / kv ratio is expected to approach unity,
where the soil remolding is maximum.

Prediction of Smear Zone from Reduction of Water

Content
Various researchers 共e.g., Taylor 1948; Samarasinghe et al. 1982;
Tavenas et al. 1983a; b; Babu et al. 1993兲 have discussed the
effect of void ratio on the permeability. They have concluded
that permeability is dependent upon the void ratio and the water
content of the soil. In this research, an attempt is made to examine
the extent of the smear zone from the variation of water content
and the normalized water content reduction, i.e., 共wmax − w兲 / wmax.
For this purpose, samples were collected at five vertical and eight
radial locations. The variation of the water content and the nor-
malized water content reduction with radial distance at a depth
of 0.5 m is illustrated in Fig. 5. The variation of water content
关Fig. 5共a兲兴 shows a similar trend to the variation of kh as shown
previously in Fig. 4共a兲. The normalized water content reduction is
plotted in Fig. 5共b兲, which shows that all data are confined within Fig. 6. Variation of water content with depth and radial distance for
a narrow band, again demarcating the smear zone. The variation an applied pressure of 200 kPa

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 ⌬k = Ckh 冉 冊
⌬e
e0
n
共2兲

Now substituting, e0 = 1.025, kh = 2.75⫻ 10−10 m / s,

⌬e = 1.025− 0.965= 0.06, C = 8.32, and n = 1.1 into Eq. 共2兲:
⌬k = 1.0083⫻ 10−10 m / s. Therefore the permeability at the se-
lected point is 1.7416⫻ 10−10 m / s, which is the same as the mea-
sured value of 1.74⫻ 10−10 m / s.

Conclusions
The characteristics of the smear zone created by mandrel driven
prefabricated vertical drains were investigated using a large-scale
consolidometer. The extent of the smear zone can be explained on
the basis of either the variation of permeability anisotropy 共kh / kv
Fig. 7. Correlation between the reduction of permeability and the ratio兲, or normalized permeability 共kh / khu ratio兲, or the change in
water content within the smear zone water content. In all these methods, the extent of the smear zone
for Moruya clay was found to be about 2.5 times the equivalent
mandrel radius. However, the size of the smear zone may vary
depending on the dimensions 共shape兲 of the mandrel, the speed of
installation, and the soil stiffness. An expression between the
Correlation between Permeability and Water Content change in water content and the change in horizontal permeability
within Smear Zone within the smear zone is found, and this empirical expression is
A correlation between the permeability reduction 共i.e., difference very useful in a practical sense for estimating the lateral smear
between the undisturbed and smear zone values兲 and water con- zone permeability by measuring the water content.
tent reduction is shown in Fig. 7. This relationship is almost per-
fectly linear 共R2 ⬎ 0.99兲, and the following empirical expression References
can be proposed
Babu, G. L. S., Pandian, N. S., and Nagaraj, T. S. 共1993兲. “A re-

冉 冊
examination of the permeability index of clays.” Can. Geotech. J., 30,
⌬k ⌬w n
187–191.
=C 共1兲
kh w0 Barron, R. A. 共1948兲. “Consolidation of fine-grained soils by drain
wells.” Trans. Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 113, 718–724.
where kh = permeability of undisturbed zone; ⌬k = permeability Hansbo, S. 共1981兲. “Consolidation of fine-grained soils by prefabricated
reduction; w0 = water content of undisturbed zone; and ⌬w⫽re- drains.” Proc., 10th Int. Conf. SMFE, Stockholm, Vol. 3, 677–682.
duction in water content 共⌬w = w0 − w兲. The empirical coefficients Indraratna, B., and Redana, I. W. 共1997兲. “Plane strain modeling of smear
C and n are 8.32 and 1.1, respectively, for the current test results. effects associated with vertical drains.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng.,
The above equation can be very useful in practice, because by 123共5兲, 474–478.
measuring the water content variation, the associated horizontal Indraratna, B., and Redana, I. W. 共1998兲. “Laboratory determination of
permeability may be estimated. Since Indraratna and Redana smear zone due to vertical drain installation.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron.
共1998兲 have used same clay for their study, the above-proposed Eng., 124共2兲, 180–184.
solution can be applied to back-calculate the smear zone perme- Samarasinghe, A. M., Huang, Y. H., and Drnevich, V. P. 共1982兲. “Perme-
ability using the same empirical coefficients 共C = 8.32, n = 1.1兲. ability and consolidation of normally consolidated soils.” J. Geotech.
Eng. Div., Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 108, 835–840.
For example, the following data have been extracted from
Tavenas, F., Jean, P., Leblond, P., and Leroueil, S. 共1983a兲. “The perme-
Indraratna and Redana 共1998兲 for an applied pressure of 32.5 kPa. ability of natural soft clays, Part I: Methods of laboratory permeability
The void ratio 共e兲 and permeability 共kh兲 in the undisturbed zone measurement.” Can. Geotech. J., 20, 629–644.
were 1.025 and 2.75⫻ 10−10 m / s, respectively, and the value of e Tavenas, F., Jean, P., Leblond, P., and Leroueil, S. 共1983b兲. “The perme-
at a radial distance of 50 mm inside the smear zone was 0.965. ability of natural soft clays, Part II: Permeability characteristics.” Can.
Since the water content is directly proportional to the void Geotech. J., 20, 645–660.
ratio at full saturation 共w = e / G兲, Eq. 共1兲 can be rewritten in terms Taylor, D. W. 共1948兲. Fundamentals of soil mechanics, Wiley, New York,
of void ratio reduction as 700.

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