Laboratory investigation of axisymmetric single vacuum well point

Vacuum well point is a new but faint soft ground treatment method. This work focuses on the consolidation behavior of a reconstituted soft clayey specimen under vacuum well point combined with surcharge loading. The laboratory test was conducted through a vacuum-surcharge consolidation apparatus, and the vacuum loading scheme was adopted for vacuum pressure application to investigate the vacuum effect on soil consolidation. In the testing process, some key parameters such as vacuum pressure, pore water pressure and settlement deformation were timely recorded. Furthermore, the water content, void ratio and permeability coefficient of samples collected after loading were measured to reflect the consolidation characteristics. By comparing with the membrane system and membraneless system, something different was found for the vacuum well point method. The results indicate that the consolidation behavior of an axisymmetric single vacuum well point is almost identical to the behavior of vacuum preloading combined with prefabricated vertical drain (PVD), except for the distribution of the vacuum pressure along the well drain due to the structure of the vacuum well point. And the vacuum well point method may be useful for the improvement of soft clayey deposit in a certain depth. © 2016, Central South University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.