A Soil consolidation project

In this project about 700.000 meters of wickdrains (prefabricated vertical drains-PVD) were specified.

Working with sand drains need more time and work.

The soil should be consolidated quickly, and the road is near the sea.

It was like draining the sea.

At the top of the soft soil a sand layer was placed to move the machines and also for drainage.

The contractor preferred a special soil consolidation composite - Colbonddrain.

At the top of the soil there were a 1 meter thick soil which was difficult to penetrate in some areas. The bottom was very soft.

A simple wickdrain installation equipment attached to an excavator worked well.

The wick drains installed upto 18 meters depth.

At the end the consolidation was done succesfully.

Synthetics three dimensional mats in saltwater aquariums

It is a nice hobby to have an aquarium and saltwater aquariums are even better.
Below are the opinions of a saltwater (reef) aquarium owner:

I tried several items but Enkamat worked best.

The fibres and the design of the mesh are strong enough to make the necessary modifications on the propeller.

The brand name of the pump is Resun. It was risky to make these change to that pump.

By using Enkamat , the performance increased about 50%.

Actually the pump is not designed for this purpose.

I used a system which is called foam fractination protein skimmer ( a special filter system) which is almost necessary for a salt water aquarium.

If the filter surface is large the filtration is better. Filtration surface is the surface which air touches the water.

The system to enlarge this surface is to create a lot of air bubbles. At this point Enkamat works. Instead of a standard propeller Enkamat mixes the air which the pump aspires and makes small pieces of bubles.

So, the skimmer performance is increased.

Tall white cylinder : protein skimmer. Actually it is clear transparent but because of the air bubbles it is seen as white. More white is better. After using Enkamat it becomes really white.

Enkamat has different colours. Light yellow one is used here. But also black ones are more common.
To my opinion it is risky to make the above changes. So, consult your supplier. It may also damage your system. So, this is only a general information. Everybody takes their own risk and resposibility.

Drainage- retaining wall-geocomposite sheet drain

To prevent the water pressure behind the retaining walls a drainage layer is generally needed. The convetional method is to use gravel behind the wall and leave some holes on he wall. The water leakage from these holes causes bad view . And sometimes the gravel may be expensive with the transportation costs.



One of the easiest methods is to use geocomposite drainage sheets.



In this project seen on the pictures a geocomposite drainage sheet have been used. The drainage material was made of a 3 dimensional drainage core which lets water go to any direction and a special filter which is resistant to clogging.



The drainage layers were installed vertically by simple methods. They nailed.



The most important thing is you should pay attention to the overlap direction. Because if you start backfilling with the help of a heavy machine like an excavator the overlaps should look to the opposite side of backfilling.



If you backfill from the front (directly on the drain) there is no problem.

Applications of uniaxial geogrids

Some Applications of uniaxial geogrids

• Bridge abutments
• Steep slopes
• Walls
• Embankments
• Segmental retaining walls
• Landfill capping
• Landfill foundation
• Topsoil stabilization
• Structures over mining areas

What is drainage?

Drainage is the removal of excess water from land by means of surface or subsurface conduits, pipes or other systems.

Horizontal usage of wickdrains (prefabricated vertical drains-PVD)

I think the first project that the wickdrains have been used was in Belgium, in the Brussels Metropolitan Transport system. The second may be the Eskisehir light rail tram system.

Actually the main application of PVD's are in soil consolidation. But in this tram project it was used to collect the leakage water to prevent not to pass the lower section to cause rusting. So, if it is a good drainage material and if it works also horizontally why not we use horizontally.

Colbondrain (a Dutch made PVD from Colbond geosynthetics bv.) was laid horizontally, and to collect more water they made some loops upwards.