The inconstant well resistance effect

namely the changing discharge capacity of PVD with the foundation depth and consolidation time

is observed in drainage well under the vacuum preloading condition. Meanwhile

the partition of vertical drain zone and smear zone in 3D model is another challenging problem of finite element simulation. In order to simulate the actual conditions of vacuum preloading

a model with dimensionless parameters A

1

and α

2

considering well resistance in 3D finite element analysis is developed in this paper. An adaptive grid unit simplifies the drain zone and an equivalent method simplifies smear zone in simulation. Th

e proposed procedure is applied to build the 3D finite element model of the reclamation project in Tianjin Port

and is verified by comparisons between the calculated data and the observed data.