This paper presents a case study on the application of the vacuum preloading method for a soil improvement project in Tianjin, China. The site area was 50 000 m2, and the soft clay treated was about 20 m thick, including a very soft muddy clay layer 4–5 m thick, formed from dredged slurry. The water contents of the clays were higher than or as high as the liquid limits. A vacuum load of 80 kPa was applied for 4 months. The ground settled nearly 1 m, and the average degree of consolidation was greater than 80%. The undrained shear strength of the soil increased two- to threefold after treatment. The procedures used for soil improvement, the field instrumentation programme, and the field monitoring data are described and discussed.

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Geosynthetic tubes inflated with water, clay slurry or sand have been widely used for large dike construction in land reclamation projects. In this paper, analytical solutions for geosynthetic tube resting on rigid foundation is presented by adopting an approach similar to that presented by . The proposed method allows a quick preliminary design to be made for using a closed-form solution. To simplify the analysis, relationships between geometrical parameters and pumping pressure are established using numerical method. The analytical solutions were compared with several existing solutions and good agreements were achieved.