A new approach of vacuum preloading with booster PVDs to improve deep marine clay strata

This paper presented a new approach for ground improvement of deep marine clay. In which, the conventional booster tube in the current air booster vacuum preloading technology was replaced by the booster PVD. In comparison to the ordinary PVD, the booster PVD could provide inflow channels for the compressed air when the booster pump was in operation. To examine the performance of this new air booster vacuum preloading technology, in-situ field tests were conducted at Oufei sluice project, where the thickness of the soft soil layers (i.e., marine clay) was more than 20 m. An extensive monitoring system was implemented to measure the vacuum pressure, pore water pressure, settlement, and lateral displacement at this reclamation site. With the collected field monitoring data, a comprehensive data analysis was carried out to evaluate the extent of ground improvement. The study results depicted that this new air booster vacuum preloading technology was more effective for the ground improvement of the deep marine clay layers, in comparison to the conventional vacuum preloading technology.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author