The Settlement Analysis of Soft Ground Improved by Vacuum-surcharge Preloading Method

The vacuum-surcharge preloading method is widely used in improving soft soil ground. Currently, many methods can be used to calculate the settlement of the ground; however, those analyses need too many parameters and are too complicated for the engineers to use. ANSYS program is a practical program to calculate the settlement of improved soft ground by vacuum-surcharge preloading method. Using the heat conduction instead of vacuum conduction, the vacuum load can be converted to nodal force which can be applied to the model. After inputting the nodal force and surcharge load into the model, the settlement can be calculated and is close to the monitoring results. Then, the deformation and effects of vacuum and surcharge load are calculated and analyzed. The calculated results show that the stability of the subgrade tested is improved under the effect of vacuum load and the effect of vacuum is better than that of surcharge.