Abstract: The line sink drainage element method was proposed to solve the problem that small FEM grid was needed near drainage holes due to the high hydraulic gradient at the cost of time consuming.Based on the assumption that the water flow around the drainage holes was radial one,the flux of the drainage holes was determined.Then,the line sink drainage elements were created by establishing the relationship between the drainage flux and water heads of the nodes of conventional element containing the drainage holes.The differences among the line sink drainage elements used in completely penetrating single well,well cluster,and partially penetrating well were discussed,and the conclusion was drawn that replacing well cluster and partially penetrating well with completely penetrating single well only brought small error.The line sink drainage elements could be used to simulate the function of drainage holes in a simple way with high precision.