Prediction to the Efficiency of Soft Clay Sample Preparation with Vacuum Loading

Vacuum loading has been examined as a way of preparing uniformly consolidated soft claysamples.The facility and loading procedure are described in this paper.An analytical solution to the threedimensional consolidation equation is derived for estimating the degree of consolidation of the soil samplewith vacuum loading.The given example shows that the predicted degree of consolidation of a soft claybulk with vacuum loading is close to that measured in the consolidation process.     

Improvement of very soft ground by a high-efficiency vacuum preloading method: A case study

This paper describes a full-scale test on a very soft clay ground around 70,000?m², which is conducted in Huizhou of Guangdong Province, China, to present a new method of vacuum preloading method. A novel moisture separator was developed, which can automatically regulate the vacuum pressure variation by changing the volume of the gas inside it. A large quantity of water drained by the proposed moisture separators can be directly used as a surcharge loading, which would shorten the ground improvement time and save costs as well. Three levels of silt-prevention prefabricated vertical drains were used in the treating process to accelerate the consolidation. In addition, the vacuum preloading method also included an effective radial drainage device which would strengthen the dredged soft clay fill in a deep layer. In the in situ test, tens of piezometers and settlement plates were installed to measure the variations of excess pore water pressures and settlement of two stages of observation points at different positions in the ground. The results show that the largest average consolidation settlement was 314.1?cm and made a saving of more than 66% in power consumption compared with traditional method. It demonstrates that this adopted method is an efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly method for improving sites with low bearing capacity and high compressibility soils.     

Laboratory modeling of siphon drainage combined with surcharge loading consolidation for soft ground treatment

Conventional drainage consolidation methods cause significant energy consumption and environmental issues. In this paper, a method combining siphon drainage and surcharge loading is proposed to drain water from soft soil with vertically installed prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) and a siphon tube. To investigate the availability and effectiveness of this method, a laboratory physical modeling test was conducted to investigate the drainage and consolidation behavior. The laboratory modeling test results of this method were compared with the calculated results of the ideal sand-drained ground consolidation method to clarify the advantages and mechanism of this method. Comparison results show that the pore pressure and settlement in the proposed method developed faster than the calculation results of ideal sand-drained consolidation theory. About 10?m thickness of unsaturated zone can be formed by siphon drainage which produce a surcharge loading effect on the soil below the flow profile. Drainage is a very slow process in soft soil, and siphon drainage can work continually. Siphon drainage combined with surcharge loading is potentially a good alternative to drain water from soft clay economically and environmentally.     

考虑预载固结效应的海底浅基础承载力包络面演化规律研究

由于预载下土体固结,海底浅基础的承载力会随作业时间的增加而改变,其时变效应评估困难。基于修正剑桥模型,采用水土耦合有限元方法研究了预载作用下浅基础在正常固结黏土海床中承载力破坏包络面的时变规律。在验证数值模型准确性后,通过位移探针测试获取复合加载模式下浅基础的破坏包络面,揭示了预载和固结程度对基础承载力和破坏包络面的影响,给出了预载作用下浅基础承载力包络面计算方法。结果表明：随着预载比增加,固结单轴承载力呈现线性增长,固结承载力增幅在水平向最大;部分固结承载力相对增幅与预载比无关,而随固结度变化;破坏包络面形状由预载比控制,而包络面大小由预载比和固结度共同控制。研究结果可为海洋浅基础的时变承载力评估提供参考依据。     

Simple consolidation method for dredger fill treatment using plastic vertical drains with vacuum

Abstract

Vacuum preloading with plastic vertical drains has been applied widely to accelerating consolidation of dredger fills. As a result of nonlinear variations in permeability and compression during the process of dredger fill consolidation, an axisymmetric consolidation method for dredger fill treatment using PVD with vacuum is proposed with varied R_u. The effects of C_c/C_k and the loading ratio on the proposed method are discussed. It is found that the difference between the traditional method and proposed method is obvious in the case of large loading ratio (such as dredger fill treated with vacuum preloading). The degree of consolidation in the early phase of consolidation obtained using the proposed method was less than that obtained using the traditional method and the degree of consolidation in the later phase of consolidation obtained using the modified expression was larger than that obtained using the traditional method, as C_c/C_k?<?1. However, opposite trends were observed when C_c/C_k?>?1, the proposed method was closer to the actual situation. The applicability of the proposed method was verified by laboratory and field tests. For the consolidation of dredger fill with high water content, we recommend the adoption of the proposed method for calculating the degree of consolidation.     

Influence of vacuum preloading on vertical bearing capacities of piles installed on coastal soft soil

Abstract

Land reclamation has increased significantly in the eastern coastal areas of China. The increased exploitation of offshore resources has made cast-in-situ piles more preferable in these regions. However, precise prediction of axial forces and shaft resistances of piles is particularly difficult because geological conditions are complex after the foundation is treated by vacuum preloading. In this study, two groups of cast-in-situ piles, each of which consisted of two piles installed in soft soil in Oufei Project, Wenzhou, China, were compared by conducting tests using the slow static loading method to evaluate the influence of applying vacuum preloading to deal with soft soil foundation on the vertical bearing capacities of the piles. Two piles were located in an untreated area, while the other two were located in a vacuum preloading treating area. All the piles had the same length and diameter. In addition, the axial forces and shaft resistances of piles were calculated based on the measured strains. The field tests revealed that the ultimate bearing capacities and shaft resistances of test piles were significantly improved compared to those of the piles in untreated area. The experimental results presented in this study are expected to be highly beneficial for practical engineering.     

Unified numerical study of shallow foundation on structured soft clay under unconsolidated and consolidated-undrained loadings

Abstract

Based on a new elasto-plastic constitutive model, this paper presents a soil–water coupled numerical prediction of the bearing capacity for shallow foundation constructed on Ballina soft clay for unconsolidated undrained (UU) and consolidated undrained (CU) conditions. This elasto-plastic constitutive Shanghai model has an advantage of describing the mechanical behaviour of over-consolidated and structured soil under different loading and drainage conditions, by using one set of material parameter. In this paper, the Shanghai model used for both UU and CU conditions has the same initial parameters obtained from laboratory test results. The loading conditions and consolidation stages vary based on construction details. The predicted bearing pressure-settlement responses for UU and CU, approves the field observation. The phenomenon of gaining the bearing capacity due to consolidation is captured and explained by the use of soil–water coupled numerical analysis with a new elasto-plastic model. The stress strain behaviour, stress paths and the decay of the structure of elements at different depths presented in this study, reveal the mechanism for the difference between UU and CU conditions to understand the foundation behaviour. Effect of the initial degree of soil structure on the bearing capacity is also addressed. Overall, this approach provides the integrated solution for the shallow foundation design problems under short and long-term loadings.     

Settlement Prediction of Surcharge Preloaded Low Embankment on Soft Ground Subjected to Cyclic Loading

This article studies the effect of dynamic cyclic loading and surcharge preloading method on the post-construction settlement of low embankments. Soil samples obtained from the soft ground under an embankment were consolidated by surcharge preloading followed by static and dynamic cyclic loading in the odometer. The results show that the consolidation deformation of the soil samples is independent of the frequency of the dynamic cyclic loading, which was simulated to follow the half-sine wave, and this is consistent with the energy concept. The post-construction settlement increases with increasing amplitude of cyclic load and the effectiveness of surcharge preloading depends on the difference between magnitude of surcharge and amplitude of the cyclic load. Based on the consolidation theory combined with the test results, a formula has been proposed to compute the post-construction settlement of a low embankment under cyclic loading.     

Newly developed technique and analysis solution to accelerate consolidation of ultrasoft soil

Plastic vertical drainage is widely used in vacuum preloading for soft soil treatment. However, plastic vertical drainage has a number of disadvantages such as it only provides drainage paths in vertical directions and the distribution of soil strength is not uniform. A new technique, prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage, was developed in this study to shorten the consolidation time of ultrasoft soil. Using one vertical drainage tube and four horizontal drainage tubes, prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage provides drainage paths not only in vertical but also in horizontal directions. An analytical solution was derived to calculate the degree of soil consolidation when using the prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage technique. Field tests were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage and to verify the proposed analytical solution. It was found that consolidation time of soft clays using prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage was 50% lower than plastic vertical drainage. Moreover, the average undrained shear strength of soil treated by the prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage technique was approximately 30% larger than that treated by the plastic vertical drainage technique. The degree of soil consolidation estimated from the proposed analytical solution showed good agreement with field measurements. This implies that the proposed analytical solution can be used to directly estimate the degree of consolidation when the soil is treated by prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage.     

Reinforcement of Soft Foundation with Geotextile and Observation for Sea Dike Project of Zhapu Port

1 .IntroductionTheZhapuPortissituatedonthenorthbankoftheHangzhouBay ,nearZhapuTowninPinghuCity ,Zhejiangprovince .Asthefirststepofconstruction ,reclamationwasaccomplishedinthehinter landoftheharbor.Theborderdikeofafulllengthof 1 2 71mislocatedinthetidalregionoftheHangzhouBay .ThepreliminarydesignofthisprojectwascompletedinJune 1 986 ,anditsconstructionbeganinJuly 1 986 ,andwascompletedinMarch 1 991 .TheseadikewasbuiltontheQ4marinedepositofsaturatedsoftclaywithathicknessofabout2 7mandgeo…     

Cumulative Deformation of Soft Clay Under Cyclic Loading

Reconstituted specimens are prepared by means of vacuum preloading. Both static and cyclic triaxial tests are carried out, with the specimens consolidated under different principal stress ratios. A finite element method is put forward for calculating the cumulative deformation of soft clay under cyclic loading.     

Estimation of Undrained Bearing Capacity for Offshore Soft Foundations with Cyclic Load

The degradation strength of soils under cyclic loading is studied and a method for deter-mining the cyclic degradation strength with cyclic triaxial tests is given in the paper.Furthermore,a dum-my static method for estimating the undrained bearing capacity for offshore soft foundation under waveloads is developed.It can consider the effect of the difference of cyclic stress for different parts of the foun-dation on both the degradation strength of the foundation soil and the bearing capacity so that the esti-mated result can better reflect the real condition of foundation under cyclic loading.The method can be ap-plied to plane and space problem.     

日照港十六号路软基处理工程

介绍了日照港十六号路软基加固方案及其加固效果     

Underwater Explosion Treatment of Marine Soft Foundation

The consolidation of soft foundation is a problem that commonly appears in harbor construction engineering on muddy coast. Introduced in this paper is the experimental study on underwater explosion treatment of soft foundation, including the regulations of explosion hollow development and medium movement, the law of similarity of densification and settlement of filled stone mass by shock wave pressure and explosion energy and their construction technologies, etc. A number of projects have been completed by applying this new technique, and the technique itself has been proved practicable.     

Stability of the Guiding Dike in Yangtze Estuary Under the Wave Load

1 .IntroductionIt has beenrealizedthat constructing gravitystructures onsoft soil foundations is a difficult task,especiallyinthe marine area where boththe geological and environmental conditions are severe .Thisisnot only because the bearing capacity of the soft foundation is relatively low, but also because thestrength of the soft soil will befurther weakened bythe waveloading (Andersenet al .,1988 ;Ander-sen and Lauritzsen,1988 ; Yasuhara ,1988) .The strength weakening may cause serious d…     

Effects of frequency and confining pressure on consolidation drainage behavior of soft marine clays

Abstract

This article presents an experimental investigation on the dynamic consolidation (DC) drainage behavior of soft marine clays. A sinusoidal harmonic load with different frequencies was applied to simulate the DC method in which the conventional impact load was replaced by the cyclic load. Four geotextile-filter strips were used to form the side drainage channels simulating the wick drain method. A series of loading tests were conducted on soft soil specimens at different confining pressures (i.e., 20, 40, 70, and 100?kPa) and different vibration frequencies (i.e., 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, and 5?Hz). Test results showed that both confining pressure and frequency have significant influences on the drainage behavior of soft marine clay specimens. The magnitude of drainage volume consistently decreases linearly with increasing confining pressure. Compared to static loading condition, specimens under cyclic loading condition at different frequencies show a better drainage performance. Specimen at applied frequency of 1?Hz exhibits the maximum cumulative drainage volume due to the resonant effect.     

Friction Characteristics at the Pipe-Soil Interface

-In order to analyze the stability of pipelines on the sea bed, the friction characteristics at the pipe-soil interface were examined by means of special direct shear tests. High density polythene was used as the surface of the pipe, which is a widely-utilized material for the outer cover of the pipe to prevent sea water corrosion. Sands of different gradings were tested. The reconstituted soft clay taken from the Bohai area was consolidated to different degrees of consolidation by the vacuum preloading technique, and tested.     

防波堤椭圆形桶式基础结构的贯入受力特性实验研究

某工程拟在深水软土地基上修筑防波堤,为了尽量减少地基处理充分利用天然地基,创新性设计出一种轻型薄壁的预制防波堤结构,其挡浪部分为直立薄壁圆筒,基础部分则为倒扣的薄壁椭圆形桶,并且椭圆形下桶为外壁和内隔板分成9个格室,防波堤结构浮运至指定位置后,拟采用负压工法施工安装就位。这种新型防波堤结构为国内外首次提出,其下沉施工设计尚无规范可循,为此开展了土工离心模型试验,在模型加速过程中模拟了椭圆形下桶基础在淤泥层中的自重下沉,之后利用新研发了一种大行程作动加载装置给椭圆形下桶施加下推力,让其继续向下贯入直至穿越整个淤泥层,以模拟负压工法的贯入下沉。试验测量了下桶贯入下沉过程中的推力与贯入位移,还尝试测量了桶壁和内隔板断面的压应变,由此分析了下桶基础的下沉总阻力、桶壁摩擦力以及截面压应变随贯入位移的变化。结果发现,这些曲线均出现了转折点,根据转折点对应的下沉总阻力确定了椭圆形下桶基础贯入过程所遭遇的临界下沉总阻力值,据此估算了负压工法中所需施加的压力差。     

复合加载下桶形基础循环承载性能数值分析

作为一种新型基础形式,吸力式桶形基础除了承受海洋平台结构及自身重量等竖向荷载的长期作用之外,往往还遭受波浪等所产生的水平荷载及其力矩等其它荷载分量的瞬时或循环作用。对复合加载模式下软土地基中桶形基础及其结构的循环承载性能尚缺乏合理的分析与计算方法。应用Andersen等对重力式平台基础及地基所建议的分析方法,基于软黏土的循环强度概念,在大型通用有限元分析软件ABAQUS平台上,通过二次开发,将软土的循环强度与Mises屈服准则结合,针对吸力式桶形基础,基于拟静力分析建立了复合加载模式下循环承载性能的计算模型,并与复合加载作用下极限承载性能进行了对比。由此表明,与极限承载力相比,桶形基础的循环承载力显著降低。     

A method analyzing deformation of anchor foundations in soft clay under static and cyclic loads

The paper presents a constitutive model to describe undrained cyclic stress-strain responses of soft clays based on the equivalent visco-elastic and creep theories. The hysteretic and nonlinear stress-strain responses of soft clays are described using the equivalent visco-elastic relationship and variations of the cyclic modulus and the damping ratio with the octahedral shear strain, respectively in the model. The cyclic accumulative strain is described using the Mises creeping potential function and the associated flow rule. The method determining the model parameters is given by static and cyclic triaxial tests. The finite element method to analyze deformation of anchor foundation in soft clay under static and cyclic loads is developed based on the model. For the method, a cyclic loading time history is divided into a series of incremental loading sub-processes which include one load cycle at least. The cyclic stress-strain responses of soil elements at any time are not tracked in detail and determined by the equivalent visco-elastic calculations for every loading sub-process. The accumulative deformation of anchor foundations is calculated using the initial strain algorithm. The method has been implemented in ABAQUS Software by developing interface programs. Model tests of the suction anchors are conducted and predicted using the method. Comparisons of predicted and model test results show that the method can be used to evaluate cyclic stability and reveal the failure process and mechanism of anchor foundations by analyzing deformation time-histories.