LAUSR

Abstract Prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) are widely used to accelerate consolidation processes of soft soils. Each PVD has a specific influence zone that is idealised as a cylinder, which is called a unit cell. The behaviour of a PVD system is usually analysed by analytical or numerical models of a unit cell model. Fully three-dimensional (3D) models of PVD systems are still a challenge due to the small size of PVDs and radial flows around PVDs, which result in a dense mesh around the PVDs and excessive computational efforts. In this study, the Vimoke–Taylor concept, which is typically used in the hydrology field, is applied to decrease the difficulties of computing 3D finite element (FE) models for PVD systems. The correction factor of the Vimoke–Taylor concept is determined by minimising the defined error between the analytical solution and the numerical result of a simple unit cell model. The correction factor depends on drained-zone size, PVD size, smear-zone size, and 3D FE mesh properties.