Engineering Commons^™

Influence Of Soil Clogging On The Performance Of Jute Fibre Drains Installed In Ballina Clay, Thanh Trung Nguyen, Buddhima Indraratna, John Philip Carter

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Biodegradable prefabricated vertical drains (BPVD) made from naturally occurring materials such as jute and coconut (coir) fibre not only have favourable engineering characteristics but also not detri-mental to the natural environment thanks to their biodegradability. Although the use of these natural fibre drains has been proposed for several decades, their application is still very limited. One of major reasons for this is because they are usually composed of individual fibres with large openings which can trap fine soils while discharging pore pressure, consequently reducing the hydraulic conductivity of the drain. This study therefore aims to clarify how soil can clog …