Performance and Prediction of Vacuum Combined Surcharge Consolidation at Port of Brisbane
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 11
Abstract
During the past decade, the application of vacuum preloading for stabilizing soft coastal clay and other low-lying estuarine soils has become popular in Australia. The cost-effectiveness is a major factor in most projects in view of the significantly reduced time for achieving a relatively high degree of consolidation. Resulting from an increase in trade activities at the Port of Brisbane, new facilities on Fisherman Islands at the mouth of the Brisbane River will be constructed on the new outer area (235 ha) adjacent to the existing port facilities through land reclamation. A vacuum-assisted surcharge load and conventional surcharge scheme in conjunction with prefabricated vertical drains was selected to reduce the required consolidation time through the deeper subsoil layers. The design of the combined vacuum and surcharge fill system and the construction of the embankment are described in this paper. A comparison of the performance of the vacuum combined surcharge loading system with a standard surcharge fill highlights the clear benefits of vacuum consolidation. Field monitoring data are presented to demonstrate how the embankment performed during construction. An analytical solution for radial consolidation considering both time-dependent surcharge loading and vacuum pressure is proposed to predict the settlements and associated excess pore pressures of the soft Holocene clay deposits.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support of the Port of Brisbane Corporation, Coffey Geotechnics, and Austress Menard. The research funding from the Australia Research Council is acknowledged. The assistance of Prof. A. S. Balasubramaniam of Griffith Univ., Daniel Berthier of Austress Menard, Prof. Harry Poulos, Cynthia De Bok, Tine Birkemose, and Chamari Bamunawita of Coffey Geotechnics is appreciated.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 11 • November 2011
Pages: 1009 - 1018
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 4, 2010
Accepted: Feb 2, 2011
Published online: Oct 14, 2011
Published in print: Nov 1, 2011
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