• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.319-331
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• 2017

This vacuum preloading combined with polyacrylamide (PAM) flocculation was proposed to separating solid-liquid in waste slurry and to improving bearing capacity of soft soil ground. By using waste slurry taken from drilled shaft construction site in Shanghai, China, a series of settling column tests with four typical flocculants and one normal for waste slurry were carried out for comparative analysis. The optimal amounts for each flocculant were obtained from the column tests. Then, model tests on vacuum preloading with anionic polyacrylamide (APAM) flocculation and without flocculants were carried out. The out of water and the settlement of slurry surface ground were monitored during the model tests, and the changes in water content, particle-size and pore-size distributions in different positions after the model tests were measured and discussed. It is found that water content of the waste slurry without APAM flocculation changed from 204 to 195% by 24 hours standing and 15 hours vacuum preloading, while the water content of the waste slurry with APAM flocculation was declined from 163 to 96% by 24 hours standing, and was further reduced into 37% by 136 hours vacuum preloading, which shows that the combined method is feasible and effective.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.543-551
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• 2019

In China, serious environmental problems are induced by the extremely soft construction waste slurries in many urban areas, and there is no appropriate method to treat it presently. In this paper, four model tests were conducted to investigate the efficiency of waste slurry treatment by combining three conditioning agents which can change characteristics of the slurries with a traditional vacuum preloading method. The tests of size analysis of particle aggregate were conducted to investigate the influence of different conditioning agents on the size distributions of particle aggregate. During the model test, the discharged water volumes were monitored. The pore-size distribution and void ratio of the waste slurries after the vacuum preloading were measured by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). It is found that 1) During the natural precipitation, volume of water out of the organic agent is higher than that of the mixed agent, but it is smaller than that of the mixed agent in the vacuum preloading stage; 2) the mixed agent has a higher total volume of water out than the organic agent and the inorganic agent after test, while the organic agent and the inorganic agent have little difference with respect to the drainage effect. The results demonstrate that the combination of mixed conditioning agent and vacuum preloading for the solid-liquid separation in waste slurry has a satisfactory effect and can be applied in engineering practice.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.419-436
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• 2014

Soil improvement by preloading with PVD in combination with vacuum is helpful when a considerable load is required to meet the desired rate of settlement in a relative short time. To facilitate the vacuum propagation, vertical drains are usually employed in conjunction. This ground improvement method is more and more applied in the Mekong delta of Vietnam to meet the needs of fast infrastructure development. This paper reports on a pilot test that was carried out to investigate the effect of ground improvement by vacuum and PVD on the rate of consolidation at the site of Saigon International Terminals Vietnam (SITV) in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, Viet Nam. Three main aspects of the test will be presented, and namely, instrumentation and field monitoring program, calculation of consolidation settlement and back-analysis of soil properties to see the difference before and after ground improvement.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.79-88
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• 1996

In this study, prediction of soil behavior under vacuum preloading with vertical drain is explored on the basis of numerical models and toe results were compared with field measurements. Reasonable prediction of the time rate of settlements and pore pressure dissipation under vacuum preloading is the maj or concern. The conventional method for vatsuum preloading is based on modeling vacuum preloading as surcharge loading for the consolidation analysis. However, this modeling may violate the real behavior of soils under vacuum loading since the total stress in the analysis varies due to the modeled surcharge loading whereas in'.situ total stress of soils under vacuum loading is constant. In this study a new method is suggested. Instead of modeling vacuum loading as surcharge loading, negative hydraulic head is applied at the surface drain boundary to simulate the vacuum preloading. Comparisons of predictions and field measurements of soil behavior under vatsuum preloading are presented and the usefulness of the new modeling technique is demonstrated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1327-1333
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• 2013

Air bearings are widely used in precision stages because of low friction and high motion accuracy, however, they suffer from low stiffness in comparison with rolling bearings or hydrostatic bearings. So, several preloading methods using weight, magnet and vacuum force, and opposing pads have been used to increase the stiffness of the air bearings. In this paper, pressure distributions of the vacuum preloaded porous air bearings are calculated using the proposed method. And then, the load capacity and stiffness are analyzed. For the vacuum preloaded air bearings, the stiffness is increased owing to reduced bearing clearance by vacuum force. The simulation results indicate that variation of vacuum pressure with clearance in the vacuum pocket gives rise to low stiffness, so the vacuum pocket should be designed for pressure to be constantly maintained regardless of the bearing clearance by means of large effective pumping speed.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2006

The numerical analysis of the negative pressure porous gas bearings is presented. The pressure distribution is calculated using the finite difference method. The Reynolds equation and Darcy's equation are solved simultaneously. The air bearing stiffness and damping are evaluated using the perturbation method. Rectangular uniform grid is employed to model the bearing. The vacuum preloading is considered. The pressure in the vacuum pocket is assumed to be a constant negative pressure. The total load, stiffness, damping and flow rate are calculated fur several geometrical configurations and several values of negative pressure. It is found that too large vacuum pocket can result in negative total force.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2022

In this study, the individual vacuum seepage consolidation method, a new soft ground improvement method, was developed to supplement the conventional suction drain method (individual vacuum preloading method) and the geotechnical behavior was predicted through numerical analysis. If the individual vacuum seepage consolidation method applied, the effect of accelerating settlement and increasing the amount of settlement was high when the aquifer was located in the middle or at the bottom of the layer to the target improvement layer. It was found that the pumping amount in the aquifer does not affect the settlement behavior when it exceeds a certain level. Even vacuum pumping wells were installed in various locations, such as inside or outside of the embankment, the difference in settlement and horizontal displacement was insignificant. In addition, it was predicted that the settlement rate was the fastest and the horizontal displacement (inward) was large when both methods were carried out at the same time. Since this method can reach the target settlement amount very quickly, it was confirmed that it is possible to increase the spacing of vertical drain, thereby securing economic feasibility.