MENARD Vacuum

Menard Vacuum is an atmospheric consolidation system used for preloading soft saturated fine-grained soils (i.e., clay, silt, peat). An airtight impervious membrane is installed on the ground surface and sealed in the trenches. Vacuum pumps are connected to the system to remove the air for soil below the membrane. This will cerates ‘vacuum effect’ (isotropic consolidation) in the soil between 60 kPa to 80 kPa depending on the global efficiency of the system. This method is suitable for organic soils having high moisture content, thick soft compressible layer of more than 30 m and large area of treatment. It is suitable for area having stability problem due to the higher preloading and reducing in time for consolidation process. This technique is widely used in highway construction, power plant, harbour container terminal, residential area, etc.