A New Method for Predicting Consolidation Settlement of Soft Ground Reinforced with Preloading Technique

Preloading technique provides an efficient and economic solution to the problem of improving soft soils. The main focus of this paper is to present a new method for predicting the ultimate consolidation settlement of soft ground reinforced with preloading technique. This method is based on the linear relationship between settlement and settlement rate that derived from the theoretical solution to average consolidation degree of ground under various drainage boundary conditions. Furthermore, the ultimate settlement of a ground cell improved by the technique of vacuum preloading combined with fill surcharge has been determined using this method as well as the non-linear curve fitting method with the model of negative exponential function according to the field monitoring data of surface settlement. The results of the two methods turn out to be very close, especially when the data with relatively larger time spacing are selected for calculation. And, the present method is of higher practicability since there is no need for complicated non-linear curve fitting.