SYNOPSIS

Vacuum preloading method has been used in many soil improvement and land reclamation projects. A number of improvements have been made to this technology since its first large scale application in the early 80’s. In this seminar, several vacuum preloading methods including some new variations will be introduced. The advantages and disadvantages of each method will be compared. Technical issues such as improvement depth, vacuum pressure distribution in soil, evaluation of degree of consolidation for soil under vacuum consolidation, etc. will be discussed. A new method for the use of vacuum preloading for land reclamation projects will be briefly explained. Case histories for the use of the vacuum preloading or the combined vacuum and fill surcharge preloading method in soil improvement projects will also be presented.


PROFILE OF SPEAKER

Prof. Dr Chu Jian is a professor and the James M. Hoover Chair in Geotechnical Engineering at Iowa State University, USA. He has also worked for Nanyang Technological University in Singapore for more than 20 years and served as the Director of the Centre for Infrastructure Systems. Dr Chu has more than 25 years’ experience in geotechnical engineering in general and soil properties, in-situ and laboratory testing, soil improvement and land reclamation in particular. He was the Vice President of the Geotechnical Society of Singapore and the past Chairman of the technical committee TC39 under the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). He is also serving other three ISSMGE technical committees as the Vice Chairman for Land Reclamation and Committee Member for Ground Improvement and Coastal and River Disaster Mitigation and Rehabilitation. He has been a keynote or invited speaker at 40 over international conferences.  He is a co-editor or editorial board member for 10 international journals. Dr Chu has published more than 280 technical papers in international journals and conferences, co-authored a book on “Soil Improvement –Prefabricated Vertical Drains”, and is writing another book on “Ground Improvement Biogeotechnologies”. He won the R.M. Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society in 2004.