Abstract: Yellow River sediments have been used as filler for land reclamation in mining subsidence land nearby Yellow River. During the reclamation, water is often drained directly and rapidly from outlet excavated in the center of the cofferdam, leading to fine sediments (clay and most of silt) lost with drainage and deposited in ditch, poor lateral drainage of saturated sediments, low drainage efficiency by only vertical infiltration in reclamation strip. In this study, we tested the feasibility of geotextiles used in the Yellow River sediments to increase the lateral drainage velocity and reduce the sediment loss in drainage in a laboratory experiment. The Yellow River sediments were filed in glass tanks to simulate the land reclamation process. Two kinds of geotextiles including 250 (ZW-250) and 300 g (ZW-300) a piece were selected. In the treatments with geotextiles, the whole cross section was opened for drainage. A control without geotextile (CK) was designed with narrow outlet in the center of the cross section for drainage. Similarly, glass holder and wire netting were used for supporting in all the three treatments. Sediment content in the drainage, grain size distribution of sediments in the drainage, grain size distribution of surface sediments (0-2 cm) in the glass tank and water content of filled surface sediments (0-15 cm) and bottom sediments (15-30 cm) in the glass tank of the three treatments were measured by laser grain size analyzer and other conventional methods. The results showed that there was little difference on sediment content in drainage of the three treatments. In the first stage (10 min after drainage stabilization), the sediment content in drainage of ZT-250 and ZT-300 treatments was higher than that of CK, which was opposite for the medium and later stages. In the later stage (10 min before ending experiment), the sediment content in drainage of CK was 3.1 and 4.2 times as high as that of ZT-250 and ZT-300, respectively. During the experiment, the sediment content in drainage of the geotextiles treatments revealed a downward trend, but the CK had an upward trend. In the first and medium stages, the characteristic grain sizes of sediments in drainage of the treatments using geotextiles were higher than those of CK, while the clay content was lower than that of CK. In the later stage, the characteristic grain sizes of sediments in drainage of the treatments using geotextiles were comparable with those of CK, while the clay content of CK was between that of ZT-250 and ZT-300. Same as the trend of sediment content in drainage, the clay content of sediments in drainage of the geotextiles treatments increased, while CK decrased. The coefficient of variation of the clay content in drainage of the treatments using geotextiles was lower than that of CK, indicating that the geotextiles had stable effects on retaining sediments in glass tank. There was little difference in grain size distribution of filled surface sediments in the glass tank, but there was higher content of very fine sediments in ZT-250 and ZT-300 than that of CK. The geotextiles could increase the lateral drainage velocity of the saturated sediments and the treatment of ZT-250 had the best performance. However, the effectiveness of geotextiles on reducing sediment content in the drainage and increasing the lateral drainage velocity of the saturated sediments still need to be verified before used in the field. The research could provide valuble information for the innovation of quick drainage technology of filled Yellow River sediments in mining subsidence land located in the plain mining area with high groundwater level in Eastern China.