BEHAVIOR OF SOFT SOILS IMPROVED UTILIZING VERTICAL DRAINS AND PRELOADING

Abstract

Dealing with soft soil deposits imposes various geotechnical challenges. Excessive settlement and low shear strength are some of the main characteristics of soft soils mainly caused due to their large void ratio. Different soil improvement methods can be used to overcome these problems, including the preloading method. Preloading is one of the most applied soil improvement techniques due to its simplicity, reliability, and economic efficiency compared to other methods. Soft soil deposits are characterized by low permeability; thus, the preload needs to be applied for a long time to reach the necessary consolidation. Since the 1980s, Prefabricated Vertical Drains (PVDs) have been extensively utilized as a method of accelerating the preloading.