VACUUM CONSOLIDATION

Soft soil has very low shear strength. The pore water pressure
reduces the friction between the soil particles and makes the soil particles slide
over each other resulting in the reduction in shear strength. So the soft soil needs
to be stabilized. There are various soft soil stabilizing methods. They are listed as
follows.

 Vacuum consolidation
 Deep soil mixing
 Normal embankment
 Pre-loading
 Wick drains

N.B:- All the above methods are used by the Road & Transportation Authority, New
South Wales(Australia). Vacuum consolidation is one of them.

Abstract:- Vacuum consolidation (or vacuum preloading) is a soft soil

improvement method that has been successfully used by geotechnical
engineers and specialists of ground improvement companies in countries
such as Australia, China, Korea, Thailand and France for soil improvement
or land reclamation. The vacuum preloading method is cheaper and faster
than the fill surcharge method for an equivalent load in suitable areas. Where
the underlying ground consists of permeable materials, such as sand or
sandy clay. The cost of the technique will be significantly increased due to
the requirement of cut-off walls into non-permeable layers to seal off the
vacuum. The settlement resulting from vacuum preloading is less than that
from a surcharge load of the same magnitude as vacuum consolidation is
influenced by drainage boundary conditions.

Vacuum consolidation method is a

technique of applying vacuum suction to an isolated soil mass to reduce the
atmospheric pressure in it, thus by the way of reducing the pore water pressure in
the soil the effective stress is increased without changing the total stress. By
improving construction techniques, as well as developing analytical methods for
designing, the technique has become an effective and economical method for soft
ground improvement and capable to conduct in various site conditions. Principally,
a vacuum consolidation system consists of a system of drains vertically installed
from ground surface into the treated soil mass to prescribed depth, a surface
drainage system including a granular medium (sand mat) and horizontal drains, and
collector pipes leading to a vacuum pump system for transmission of vacuum to
the soil as well as discharging water and air out of the treated soil mass. The
vacuum treated soil mass is isolated from surface by an airtight membrane and if
required laterally protected from leakage by cut-off-walls. Here are some
demonstrating sketches of vacuum consolidation.