A Model for Vacuum-assisted Soft Soil Consolidation with PVDs

To maintain the ground stability and reduce the post-construction settlement, the soft deposits characterised by high water content, high compressibility and low permeability need to be treated by an appropriate ground improvement method prior to the construction of infrastructure. Application of PVD is a well-practiced ground improvement method for consolidating the soft clays. PVD can be used in conjunction with a fill surcharge, vacuum pressure or a combination of the two. An analytical unit cell model was proposed to capture the large strain geometry and the non-linear soil properties during the large settlement. This model showed an advantage over the traditional model in predicting the soft ground consolidation behaviour. In this paper, this model is used to analyse some case histories