Abstract: Plastic drainage plate has been used widely to treat soft soil foundation. Now， the popular analysis method for plastic drainage plate foundation is plane strain finite element method. However， the pore water pressure and horizontal displacement results are unsatisfactory. In this paper， a large scale 3D finite element model is established to simulate the soft soil foundation using ABAQUS， combined with an engineering example of reinforcing soft-soil foundation by preloading with plastic drainage plate. The calculated settlement curve and pore pressure curve of soft soil foundation agree with the field measurements， confirming the reliability of 3D PVD element. By changing the time of filling and the time of preloading， observing the variation of excess pore water pressure and surface subsidence， the best construction scheme is determined. The research results can provide guidance and reference for the design and construction of the soft soil foundation preloading in the future.

Key words: ABAQUS, plastic drainage plate, sand well foundation, surcharge preloading, numerical analysis