Soil improvement for a storage yard using the combined vacuum and fill preloading method

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of using the combined vacuum and fill surcharge preloading method to improve the foundation soil for a storage yard at Tianjin Port, China. A vacuum load of 80 kPa was applied for 4-8 weeks before fill surcharge was added in stages. The site to be improved was recently reclaimed using dredged clay slurry. Both the consolidated clay slurry fill and the seabed soils were very soft. After the combined vacuum and fill surcharge preloading, the ground settled more than 1 m. The average degree of consolidation achieved was more than 80%. The undrained shear strength of the soil increased twofold. The water content of the soil also decreased substantially. The soil improvement procedure using the combined vacuum and fill surcharge preloading method and the instrumentation scheme are described, the field monitoring data are presented and analyzed, and methods to estimate the degree of consolidation and several other issues related to the combined preloading method are discussed.Key words: case history, consolidation, ground improvement.