Air element concept and Composite Element Method (CEM) were introduced in this paper firstly, and then an explicit drainage holes element model was developed. The main advantage of the new model is that it allows drainage holes to be located within soil elements. Therefore the mesh generation of complicated geotechnical structures with a large number of seepage drainage holes becomes relatively convenient and feasible. This will further facilitate the optimal design of seepage control system, and in this case the calculation mesh can be kept unchanged when the number, position and orientation of drainage holes are adjusted. The model was been implemented in software. A sluice foundation seepage control problem was studied, by which the validity and the robustness of the new model were verified.