When deep and thick soft ground is improved by vacuum preloading

lateral contract deformations will be induced in the soils

and this is beneficial to ground stability. On the other hand

the lateral deformation towards the vacuum preloading area will have an adverse effect on the adjacent buildings

underground pipelines

road embankments and other structures. Serious engineering failures may take place

such as crack of the pipelines

collapse of the retaining walls

and damage of the road embankments. In order to investigate the impact of the vacuum preloading on the surrounding soils

FEM analysis has been carried out

considering the influence of soils’ tension crack. The variation behavior during the vacuum preloading process is studied on the settlement at different depths and at different distances away from the preloading area. It has been found that the calculation results from the FEM analysis based on the Biot’s theory and the consideration of tension crack are consistent with the measurement results of the settlements and the extents of the influence outside the preloading area.