Abstract
A innovative improvement technique is currently applied for soft Bangkok clay combining capped PVD combine with vacuum pressure and embankment loading whereby the prefabricated vertical drains (PVD) are connected directly by PE tubes to a vacuum pump called “Vacuum-PVD System”. The method uses a surface soil layer as a sealing layer for leakage protection and there is no need to place air-tightening geomembrane sheets on the ground surface. This method has two advantages for situations of a) high air/water permeability layer exists near the ground surface, and b) combining vacuum pressure with embankment load. An actual field project combining PVD vacuum with embankment loading has just been completed. The performance data of the system during the improvement of the section EW-4, a part of the third runway of Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Thailand are presented and interpreted. The monitored data indicated that the system mobilized -60 kPa atmospheric pressure. This allowed for unprecedented loading and settlement rates during the construction of an embankment and achieved the required degree of consolidation within the specified time period.
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© 2008 Zhejiang University Press, Hangzhou and Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg
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Saowapakpiboon, J., Bergado, D.T., Chai, J.C., Kovittayanon, N., de Zwart, T.P. (2008). Vacuum-PVD Combination with Embankment Loading Consolidation in Soft Bangkok Clay: A Case Study of the Suvarnabhumi Airport Project. In: Li, G., Chen, Y., Tang, X. (eds) Geosynthetics in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69313-0_83
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69313-0_83
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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