Analysis of Consolidation Effect of Vacuum Preloading Consolidation Without Conventional Top Sand Drainage Cushion on Newly Dreged Silt

The newly dredged silt has disadvantageous engineering properties of ultra-soft character and excess water content. It results in high requirements for post soft-ground treatment. For a future industry site filled with newly dredged silt, vacuum preloading consolidation method without drainage cushion was performed to improve the ground bearing capacity and reduce the post-construction settlement. Various approaches have been employed to investigate the ground bearing capacity after the treatment, including field testing, theoretical method and empirical methods from different design codes. The test results show vacuum preloading consolidation could increase the shearstrength of the newly dredged silt to a certain depth even without the conventional sand drainage cushion. The water content decreases substantially and the bearing capacity increases.Crust will be formed in short time on the surface of the newly dredged silt.