• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.3C
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• pp.113-120
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• 2012

An actual slope failure was analyzed in residual soils at Jinju. Due to rainfall infiltration, the safety factor decreases in the unsaturated layers, since the effective stress and shear strength decrease. In this study, the effective stress is based on suction stress using soil water retention curve. Unsaturated properties were evaluated on soil water retention curve, hydraulic conductivity and shear strength with samples from the site. After infiltration analysis of unsaturated flow under the actual rainfall, the distribution of pore water pressure could be calculated in the slope layers. In the stress field of finite elements, an elastic analysis calculated total stress distribution in the layers and also shear stresses on the slip surface using elastic model. On the slip surface, suction stress and effective stress evaluated the shear strength. As a result, the factor of safety was calculated due to rainfall, which could simulate the actual slope failure. In particular, it was found that the suction stress increases and both the effective stress and the shear strength decrease simultaneously on the slip surface.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.9-18
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• 2008

Shallow slope failures in residual soil during periods of prolonged infiltration are common in Korea. This study examines an infinite slope analysis to estimate the influence of infiltration on surficial stability of slopes by the limit equilibrium method. Approximate method which is based on the Green-Ampt model have been considered to evaluate the likelihood of shallow slope failure which is induced by a particular rainfall event that accounts for the rainfall intensity and duration for various return periods. Pradel & Raad method which is devised to predict the depth of wetting front to decomposed granite soil slopes having measured soil-water characteristic curves. To compare the results with those obtained from the Pradel & Raad method, a series of numerical analysis using SEEP/W were carried out. It was found that the stability analysis of unsaturated soils calculated by using the soil-water characteristic curve of decomposed granite soils was found to be a proper analysis for shallow slope failures due to rainfall.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.69-80
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• 2011

In this study unsaturated seepage analysis of 8 large rockfill dam managed by Korea Water Resources Corporation, were carried out, and the seepage rate of rockfill dam was analyzed by changing reservoir water level, shape, saturated and unsaturated seepage properties of core zone to present an equation to estimate steady-state seepage rate of rockfill dam. This equation considers unsaturated seepage flow and is applicable to domestic large scale Rockfill dam with the height of more than 50m. Estimated values by the proposed equation are greater than those by the method of Sakamoto (1998), which does not consider unsaturated seepage flow. The difference of estimated values increases with the lower reservoir water level and decreases with the higher reservoir water level. We can be sure that the comparison between the measured seepage rate and the estimated seepage rate by the proposed equation for the existing rockill dam was well-matched. The proposed equation is close to the actual phenomenon compared with the existing equations (Sakamoto, 1998; Chapuis and Aubertin, 2001) because it is based on the results of unsaturated seepage analysis of dams, has upstream and downstream slopes in the range of 1Vertical: (0.2~0.3)Horizontal.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.51-64
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• 2000

This paper presents a procedure of calculating a safety factor of the unsaturated slope suffering from the rainfall infiltration. The process of infiltration into a slope due to rainfall and its effect on the behavior of the soil slope are examined by using a two dimensional finite element flow-deformation coupled analysis. A factor of safety is calculated at various elapsed times after the commencement of rainfall as in the following procedure. First, stresses are estimated at each Gaussian point from the coupled finite element analysis. Then, the global stress smoothing method is applied to get a continuous stress field. Based on this stress field, a factor of safety is calculated for a specified slip surface by a stress integration scheme. Then, a search strategy is used to find out a critical slip surface which is associated with the minimum factor of safety. Some numerical examples are analyzed in order to study the effect of hydraulic conductivity on the slope stability during rain-induced infiltration. According to the results, local failure zone can be formed near the slope surface due to inhomogeneous distribution of hydraulic conductivity If the failure zone is once formed, then the region extends until a large amount of slide activates. Therefore the local failure can be neglected no longer in the stability analysis.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.695-705
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• 2024

As a result of Typhoon Hinnamnoh, several slope failures occurred in the Pohang region, it is necessary to perform infiltration and slope stability analyses due to the actual rainfall. In the failed sites, samples were collected, and the hydro-mechanical properties of unsaturated soil were examined. Modeling the actual behavior using a single-mode function characteristic curve was found to be inadequate, leading to the adoption of a dual-mode function characteristic curve. The dual-mode function showed better agreement with the water retention test data. We calculated the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity for single and dual modes and performed rainfall-induced infiltration analysis. The variations in saturation and pore water pressure were calculated due to rainfall for three landslide-prone areas, Stability analysis based on effective stress of unsaturated soil was conducted, and safety factors were computed over time steps. The dual-mode model successfully reproduced landslides triggered by Typhoon Hinnamnoh, while the single-mode model exhibited a minimum safety factor of 1.2-1.3, making slope failure unpredictable. The dual-mode model accurately predicted instability in the slope by appropriately accounting for pore water pressure variations during Typhoon.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.109-120
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• 2004

There has been outstanding research on the soil-water characteristic curves of unsaturated soils over the past several decades. Unfortunately, unsaturated soil mechanics has not been considered as an important factor in Korea. In this paper, laboratory test and numerical analysis(SoilVision Professional ver 3.04) were performed to investigate the prediction method of soil-water characteristic curve and unsaturated permeability coefficient in reclaimed ground. The pressure cell, desiccator, and tensiometor tests were conducted on three types of reclaimed soils(dredged soil, sand, weathered granite soil). Numerical analysis was executed to compare the results with the laboratory test results and also compared with the results of each prediction method. Based on the laboratory test, three different types of soils have shown different soil-water characteristic curves. The hysteresis fir these soils is clearly defined. As a result of numerical analysis, Fredlund & Xing's method and Fredlund & Wilson's model proved to worke out well for reclaimed ground soils in Korea. Also, predicting method based on the soil-water characteristic curves from the particle-size distributions is flirty reliable for estimating unsaturated permeability coefficient.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.117-126
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• 2011

Based on thermodynamics, the mathematical framework governing the hydro-mechanical behavior of partially saturated soil is derived by using balance equations, and the numerical analysis through implementation of various effective stress definitions is performed. Effective stress on partially saturated soil describes the soil strength which is presented by the relationship between water content and soil suction. For the estimation of hydro-mechanical behavior on partially saturated soil, effective stress parameter ${\chi}$ defined from various literatures is especially analyzed to understand the conditions of constitutive equations regarding residual saturation and displacement of soil. As a result, effective stress parameter ${\chi}$ has an influence on the variation of matric suction in soil with an external load and seepage. However it was found that the effect of each parameter ${\chi}$ varies with residual degree of saturation, and that of each parameter ${\chi}$ decreased with decrease in displacement of soil caused by an external load.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.101-109
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• 2007

In South Korea, many weathered soil slopes are composed of soil mixtures with certain amount of clay fractions in natural soil deposits. Accordingly, it is very important to analyze that effect of the fines on the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. In this study, five different soil types classified by mixture portion of fines were used and experiment on the soil-water characteristic curve tests (SWCC) using GCTS (Geotechnical Consulting and Testing Systems) pressure plate were performed in order to analyze the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. Based on the infiltration analysis which contains SWCC test result by the SEEP/W, it is shown that the increasing rate of the wetting band depth was decreased as the fines content and the relative density were increased. According to the stability analysis result of the unsaturated soil slopes through the SLOPE/W, it is found that the transition from the wetting band depth to the variation of strength parameters which affect the stability of unsaturated soil slopes appears to occur around $10\sim15%$ of clay contents in the mixtures.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.69-78
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• 2012

Conventional numerical analysis for rainfall-induced slope stability has been estimated by separating seepage and stress-strain behavior, respectively. Many researchers' models from commercial softwares and literatures define that partially saturated permeability is the only function of degree of saturation (or matrix suction) and then they do not consider hydraulic-mechanical characteristics for the analysis. However, in practice, the water flow processes in a deformable soil are influenced by soil skeleton movement and the pore water pressure changed due to seepage will lead to changes in stress and to deformation of a soil. The relationship between seepage and soil behavior causes a change of partially saturated permeability as well as saturated permeability with the lapse of time. Instability of partially saturated soil slopes due to infiltration would be analyzed from reduction of negative pore water pressure calculating the process of water flow based on predicted partially saturated permeability. Therefore, partially saturated permeability should be defined by the function of degree of saturation (or matric suction) and porosity. The paper presents the comparison between staggered and monolithic coupled analysis regarding seepage and stress deformation problems. As a result, the decrease in matric suction on soil slope from monolithic analysis is slower than that from staggered analysis.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.153-163
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• 2016

In order to prevent ground collapses by groundwater level drawdown, we need to understand the groundwater flow and also make an analytical approach to the cause of the collapses. In this study, we used the result of the soil lab tests to compare and review the suitability of the various interaction equations about the relation between volumetric water content and the dielectric constant. In addition, using GPR (Ground-Penetrating Radar), we reviewed the possibility of calculating an estimate of dielectric constant. Lastly, we applied seepage analysis and stress-strain analysis to the sandy ground given by ground excavation. In comparison with the previous result of the soil lab tests, we similarly predicted the suction of unsaturated soil from results of stress-strain analysis considered the seepage force for the unsaturated soil.