An energy-saving loading strategy: cyclic vacuum preloading treatment of soft ground

Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Ahead of Print.
Vacuum preloading is a commonly adopted method for improving soft ground. During the preloading period, the applied vacuum pressure is constant or multistaged, implying that the vacuum pump must work continuously with constant or increasing operating power. To reduce the energy consumption of the vacuum pump, a new loading strategy of cyclic vacuum loading was proposed in this study, whereby the pump is periodically switched on and off, and hence the vacuum pressure ascends and descends accordingly. To guide the design of cyclic vacuum preloading, a large-strain radial consolidation theory incorporating the shifting of the consolidation status of ground soil from normally consolidated to overconsolidated (and vice versa) was established in the present study. Based on the established theory, the treatment effects of cyclic vacuum loading can be quantitatively determined, including the ground settlement and the degree of consolidation, while the energy consumption can be simply determined by multiplying the power by the operating time of the vacuum pump, which works only during the ascending stage of cyclic vacuum pressure. Two cases of the cyclic vacuum preloading strategy were evaluated herein, that is, the complete cyclic vacuum loading and combined cyclic/constant vacuum loading cases. Finally, experimental tests were conducted to demonstrate the energy-saving effect of cyclic vacuum preloading. Compared to the conventional vacuum preloading strategy (i.e., constant vacuum pressure), the energy consumption of the cyclic vacuum loading strategy can be drastically reduced (80% reduction), while the treatment effects remain basically unaffected.