Review of mehods of analysis for the use of vacuum preloading and vertical drains for soft clay improvement

Abstract

The use of vertical drains with vacuum preloading for soft soil improvement has become a booming interest in recent years. In this paper, theoretical and practical developments of the utilization of vertical drain with vacuum preloading are currently reviewed. Geotechnical aspects of factors affecting the performance of vacuum consolidation and conversion procedure for multi-drain analysis are discussed based on the current state of the art. The salient aspects of selected case histories on soft clays and land reclamations are elucidated.

Keywords:

• consolidation
• modelling
• preloading
• soft soil
• vertical drains
• vacuum

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank the Australia Research Council (Australia) for its continuous support and the Thailand Airport Authority for providing the trial embankments data. A number of past research students of Prof. Indraratna, namely, Dr C. Rujikiatkamjorn, Dr I.W. Redana, Dr R. Walker, Dr C. Bamunawita, Dr I. Sathananthan, S. Balachandran and P. Ratnayake have also contributed to the contents of this keynote paper through their research work. And also Professors A.S. Balasubramaniam and J. Chu for their assistance at various times. Much of the contents reported in this paper were also described in greater detail in a number of Canadian Geotechnical and ASCE Journals.