• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.03b
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• pp.520-527
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• 2000

In the present study, the analytical approaches of vacuum consolidation with horizontal drains were proposed, For dissipating rapidly pore-water in hydraulic fills, vacuum consolidation method applied vacuum pressure in horizontal drains is developed. In the analytical approaches, the governing equation is based on two-dimensional finite strain consolidation theory and the boundary conditions of horizontal drains are considered in applying negative pore-water pressure occurred by vacuum pressure, Also, parametric studies to vacuum pressure and installation pattern of horizontal drains are carried out.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.23 no.A
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• pp.109-118
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• 2003

This paper is results of numerical works of investigating effects of horizontal drain arrangements on vacuum consolidation. Extensive numerical analyses were carried out to find the appropriate arrangements of horizontal drain of vacuum consolidation. Commercially available program of CRISP, well known to be good to modelling the behavior of clay material, was used Cam-clay model, based on the Critical State of Soil Mechanics(CSSM), was used to simulate the geotechnical engineering behavior of clay. Model test results carried out previously in the laboratory were compared with numerically estimated results and it was found that results about consolidational settlement with times were in good agreements. Based on this confirmation, parametric numerical study was performed to investigate effects of horizontal drain arrangements on vacuum consolidation with changing the vertical and horizontal spacings between drains for the given soil properties and vacuum. The effect of distance of drain located in top layer from the surface of the ground on the settlement due to vacuum was also investigated. As a results of numerical analyses, appropriate arrangements of horizontal drain to maximize the consolidation settlement due to vacuum were found. The mechanism of vacuum consolidation about the vacuum pressures being transferred to the effective stresses around drains was also evaluated.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.27-37
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• 2021

An individual vacuum consolidation system has gained a popularity for a ground improvement of soft clayey soil. Finite element anaylses have been performed to simulate the individual vacuum consolidation system using a Plaxis 2D. The modelling procedures of the vacuum consolidation system are presented with the results of an unit-cell analysis. In addition, a case study was carried out to assess the applicability of the Plaxis 2D for simulating the consolidation behavior of soft ground subjected to the individual vacuum pressure.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.13-24
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• 1995

Laboratory testings, consisting of soil properties testing and vacuum consolidation testing with and without vertical wick drain, were carried out on five different types of soil to determine soil properties and relationship between settlement and time. One dimensional consolidation teat was performed to determine if this test could be used for predicting the behavior of soils during vacuum consolidation. From the results of this study, the one dimensional consolidation test does not appear to be suitable for predicting the rate of vacuum consolidation without wick drain. However, one dimensional consolidation test reasonably predicts the total settlement of vacuum consolidation without wick drain. In vacuum consolidation, the amount of the settlement for silty soils were more or less the same for both cases, with wick drain and without wick drain, even if the time required for consolidation was considerably different. And, strategic placement of wick drain ensures moisture content and the value of the density are similar throughout the soil sample. However, the presence of wick drain for clay Boils increased the amount of settlement and also shortened the time required for consolidation.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.447-462
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• 2019

The vacuum preloading method has been used in many countries for ground improvement and land reclamation works. A sand cushion is required as a horizontal drainage channel for conventional vacuum preloading. In terms of the dredged-fill foundation soil, the treatment effect of the conventional vacuum preloading method is poor, particularly in Tianjin, China, where a shortage of sand exists. To solve this problem, straight-line vacuum preloading without sand is widely adopted in engineering practice to improve the foundation soil. Based on the engineering properties of dredged fill in Lingang City, Tianjin, this paper presents field instrumentation in five sections and analyzes the effect of a prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) layout and a vacuum pumping method on the soft soil ground treatment. Through the arrangement of pore water pressure gauges, settlement marks and vane shear tests, the settlement, pore water pressure and subsoil bearing capacity are analyzed to evaluate the effect of the ground treatment. This study demonstrates that straight-line vacuum preloading without sand can be suitable for areas with a high water content. Furthermore, the consolidation settlement and consolidation degree system is developed based on the grey model to predict the consolidation settlement and consolidation degree under vacuum preloading; the validity of the system is also verified.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.5C
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• pp.201-208
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• 2010

In this study, the ground settlement was investigated by using monitoring data of the test sites where vacuum consolidation method and surcharge method were applied for improving deep soft soil. The monitoring data are chosen in ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$ area port construction site reclaimed with very soft dredged clay. These data are analyzed to compare the consolidation characteristics between the different loading methods for soil improvement. Through analysis of the loading time, it is shown that the ground settlement reaches its allowable value under vacuum consolidation loading by about 45% faster than that of the surcharge loading consolidation. This could be explained that vacuum consolidation method makes the isotropic consolidation condition so that the time for reaching a certain final preloading without soil failure can be shortened.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.377-389
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• 2014

The vacuum consolidation method which was proposed by Kjellman in 1952 has been studied extensively and used successfully since early 1980 throughout the world, especially in East and Southeast Asia. Despite the increased successful use, different opinions still exist, especially in connection to distribution of vacuum with depth and time in vertical drains and in soil during preloading of soft ground. Porewater pressure measurements from actual cases of field vacuum and vacuum-fill preloading as well as laboratory studies have been examined. It is concluded that (a) a vacuum magnitude equal to that in the drainage blanket remains constant with depth and time within the vertical drains, (b) as expected, vacuum does not develop at the same rate within the soil at different depths; however, under ideal conditions vacuum is expected to become constant with depth in soil after the end of primary consolidation, and (c) there exists a possibility of internal leakage in vacuum intensity at some sublayers of a soft clay and silt deposit. A case history of vacuum loading with sufficient subsurface information is analyzed using the ILLICON procedure.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2004

A horizontal drain method, which applies vacuum pressure at the end of a horizontal drain for discharging pore water, is used often for improving surface reclaimed clay in the field. In this study, to examine the effectiveness of improving consolidation or shear strength depends by varying vacuum pressure, laboratory chamber horizontal drain test using vacuum pressure is performed and the results is compared with that of self-weight consolidation. The results show that water content reduces with the increase of soil depth in case of self-weight consolidation, while it reduces near the horizontal drain and increases with the increase of the distance from the horizontal drain in case of applying vacuum pressure. The shear strength of dredged soil was improved as well, when the vacuum pressure is applied. The optimized consolidation was achieved at the vacuum pressure range of 30 to 50kPa in the laboratory box test of 50cm wide, considering the range of drain interval in the field was between 0.7 and 1.2m.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.129-141
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• 2021

The vacuum preloading method has been used in many countries for soil improvement and land reclamation. However, the treatment time is long and the improvement effect is poor for the straight-line vacuum preloading method. To alleviate such problems, a novel combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading method for shallow ground treatment is proposed in this study. Two types of traditional vacuum preloading and combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading tests were conducted and monitored in the field. In both tests, the depth of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) is 4.5m, the distance between PVDs is 0.8m, and the vacuum preloading time is 60 days. The prominent difference between the two methods is when the preloading time is 45 days, the injection pressure of 250 kPa is adopted for combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading test to inject air into the ground. Based on the monitoring data, this paper systematically studied the mechanical parameters, hydraulic conductivity, pore water pressure, settlement and subsoil bearing capacity, as determined by the vane shear strength, to demonstrate that the air-pressurizing system can improve the consolidation. The consolidation time decreased by 15 days, the pore water pressure decreased to 60.49%, and the settlement and vane shear strengths increased by 45.31% and 6.29%, respectively, at the surface. These results demonstrate the validity of the combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading method. Compared with the traditional vacuum preloading, the combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading method has better reinforcement effect. In addition, an estimation method for evaluating the average degree of consolidation and an empirical formula for evaluating the subsoil bearing capacity are proposed to assist in engineering decision making.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.137-146
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• 1997

In this study, a large consolidation test was carried out to estimate the consolidation behaviour of dredged clay ground improved by horizontal drain using plastic board drain with a vacuum pressure. The test results were analyzed by a numerical simulation using potential consolidation theory applied to a hollow cylinder. The rapid decreases in pore pressure and the drain speed in the plastic board indicate that the consolidation occurred quickly after the vacuum state was applied to the test soil. According to the numerical analysis obtained by applying the linear potential consolidation theory to a clay hollow cylinder with external radial drainage, the pore pressure is affected by the strain and the permeability of the soil rather than by the diffusion types. Therefore, measured surface settlement agreed with the numerical solution at the point where consolidation pressure increasing rate u: -0.5. Also the behaviour of the clay layer settlement in the place where the drain was installed was similar to that shown in Barron's consolidation theory. Finally, the design and construction procedure including the selection of the appropriate arrangement of horizontal drains were discussed based on the results of the laboratory tutsts. It is also shown that the potential consolidation theory make it possible to predict consolidation behaviour in the field using horizontal drains exactly.