Soil improvement by electroosmotic grouting of saline solutions with vacuum drainage at the cathode

• We conduct experiment of electroosmotic grouting with vacuum drainage in cathode.
• The increase of strength near cathode is greater than electroosmotic grouting.
• The treatment effect is more homogeneous than electroosmotic grouting.
• The energy consumption is slightly higher than electroosmotic grouting.

Electroosmotic grouting is a ground improvement method for soft soils that is not widely accepted for common application because the improvement of soil strength is not uniform. This paper proposed a new method to improve the non-uniform effect of electroosmotic grouting. Such method is electroosmotic grouting coupled with vacuum drainage at the cathode. The experimental study shows that the treatment effect of electroosmotic grouting with vacuum drainage at the cathode is not only better than general electroosmosis methods but also more uniform than such methods. In this study, the soil strength increased by 362%, 350%, and 438% at the locations close to the anode, between the anode and cathode, and close to the cathode, respectively. The results demonstrate that this technique could improve the treatment effect of electroosmotic grouting in soft soils.