Add Wick Drain Region

A region of vertical wick drains can be defined with the Add Wick Drain Region option.

To add a wick drain region:

1. Select Groundwater > Add Wick Drain
Wick drains can only be defined if you are carrying out a Time-Dependent Consolidation analysis. If the Add Wick Drain Region option is disabled, then you must turn on the Time-Dependent Consolidation analysis checkbox in Project Settings, in order to enable the wick drain option.
2. You will see the Wick Drain Properties dialog. You can specify the installation stage of the wick drains, and the wick drain properties. For a description of the wick drain properties, see the Settle3 Theory document.
3. When you are finished entering the properties, select OK. You will be prompted to enter a polygon defining the wick drain region. In the Plan View, enter the vertices of the polygon which defines the boundary of the wick drain region, as described in Entering Coordinates.
4. A wick drain region must be closed. To close the polygon boundary, after all vertices are entered, right-click and select Close, or you can type c and Enter in the prompt line. This automatically and correctly closes the polygon and saves you the trouble of having to re-enter the first vertex to complete the boundary. If the Snap option is activated, you can also close a polygon by snapping to the first vertex after all other vertices are entered.
5. The wick drain region will be added to the model, and displayed in both the Plan View and 3D View, as described below.

Display of Wick Drains

When you add a wick drain region to the model, the wick drains will be displayed as a pattern of dots within the wick drain region boundary, according to the drain pattern (triangular or square) and drain spacing entered in the Wick Drain Properties dialog.

In the 3D View, the length of the wick drains can be displayed in 3-dimensions by selecting the Show Wick Drains checkbox in the Display Options dialog.

However, note the following:

• The display of the wick drain pattern represents the actual pattern, drain spacing and drain length, but does NOT necessarily represent the actual location of individual wick drains.
• The Settle3 analysis engine does NOT use the individual wick drain locations (displayed on the model), but only the average wick drain properties over the entire area of the wick drain region.