• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.589-602
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• 2020

As can be seen in many earthquakes, liquefaction causes differential settlement, which sometimes produces serious damages such as building destruction and ground subsidence. There are many possible active faults near the Busan city and the Yangsan, Dongrae, and Ilgwang faults among them pass through the city. The Busan city is also located within the influence of recent earthquakes, which occurred in the Gyeongju, Pohang, and Kumamoto (Japan). Along the wide fault valleys in the city, the Quaternary unconsolidated alluvial sediments are thickly accumulated, and the reclaimed lands with beach sediments are widely distributed in the coastal area. A large earthquake near or in the Busan city is thus expected to cause major damage due to liquefaction in urban areas. This study conducted an assessment of the liquefaction hazard according to seismic recurrence intervals across the Busan city. As a result, although there are slight differences in degree depending on seismic recurrence intervals, it is predicted that the liquefaction potential is very high in the areas of the Nakdonggang Estuary, Busan Bay, Suyeong Bay, and Songjeong Station. In addition, it is shown that the shorter the seismic recurrence interval, the greater difference the liquefaction potential depending on site periods.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.59-70
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• 2022

There is a growing interest in evaluating earthquake damage and determining disaster prevention measures due to the magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Pohang, Korea. Since the liquefaction phenomena occurred extensively in the residential area as a result of the earthquake, there was a demand for research on liquefaction phenomenon evaluation and liquefaction disaster prediction. Liquefaction is defined as a phenomenon where the strength of the ground is completely lost due to a sudden increase in excess pore water pressure caused due to large dynamic stress, such as an earthquake, acting on loose sand particles in a short period of time. The liquefaction potential index, which can identify the occurrence of liquefaction and predict the risk of liquefaction in a targeted area, can be used to create a liquefaction hazard map. However, since liquefaction assessment using existing field testing is predicated on a single borehole liquefaction assessment, there has been a representative issue for the whole targeted area. Spatial interpolation and geographic information systems can help to solve this issue to some extent. Therefore, in order to solve the representative problem of geotechnical information, this research uses the kriging method, one of the geostatistical spatial interpolation techniques, and constructs a geotechnical information database for liquefaction and spatial interpolation. Additionally, the liquefaction hazard map was created for each return period using the constructed geotechnical information database. Cross validation was used to confirm the accuracy of this liquefaction hazard map.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.5-12
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• 2019

On November 15, 2017, a unpredictable liquefaction damage was occurred at the $M_L=5.4$ Pohang earthquake and after, many researches have been conducted in Korea. In Korea, where there were no cases of earthquake damage, it has been extremely neglectable in preparing earthquake risk maps and building earthquake systems that corresponded to prevention and preparation. Since it is almost impossible to observe signs and symptoms of drought, floods, and typhoons in advance, it is very effective to predict the impacts and magnitudes of seismic events. In this study, 14,040 borehole data were collected in the metropolitan area and liquefaction evaluation was performed using the amplification factor. Based on this data, liquefaction hazard maps were prepared for ground accelerations of 0.06 g, 0.14 g, 0.22 g, and 0.30 g, including 200years return period to 4,800years return period. Also, the correlation analysis between the earthquake acceleration and LPI was carried out to draw a real-time predictable liquefaction hazard map. As a result, 707 correlation equations in every cells in GIS map were proposed. Finally, the simulation for liquefaction risk mapping against artificial earthquake was performed in the metropolitan area using the proposed correlation equations.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.149-161
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• 2022

This study selected the indexes for evaluating the damage of the railway embankments due to liquefaction from the earthquake damage cases of railway embankments. The study correlated the selected indexes and the settlement of the embankment crest from the dynamic numerical analysis. Further, the correlation was used to develop a method for evaluating the liquefaction damage to the railway embankment. The damage cases and damage types were analyzed, and referring to the liquefaction damage assessment method for other structures, the embankment height (H), the non-liquefiable layer thickness (H₁), and the liquefaction potential index were selected as indexes for evaluating the damage. The study performed dynamic effective stress analyses on the railway embankment, and the PM4-Sand model was applied as the constitutive liquefaction model for the embankment foundation ground. The model's validity was first verified by comparing it with the existing dynamic centrifugal model test results performed on the railway embankment. Nine sites where the foundation ground can be liquefied were selected from the data of 549 embankments of the Honam High-speed Railway in Korea. Further, dynamic numerical analyses using four seismic waves as input earthquake load were performed for the selected site sections. The numerical analysis results confirmed the correlation between the evaluation indexes and the embankment crest settlement. A method for efficiently evaluating the damage to the embankment due to liquefaction was proposed using the chart obtained from this correlation.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.57-65
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• 2007

Earthquake is one of the factors to affect the stability of geotechnical structures. Numerous past earthquakes have shown that earthquakes have taught that damage of soil structures could occur on fine soils as well as coarse soils. For that reason, earthquake-induced decreasing tendency for strength on both coarse and fine soils has been investigated using direct simple shear (DSS) tests in laboratory. Based on the testing results the decreasing tendency for strength on coarse and fine soils is clearly identified in terms of the concept of volume decrease potential and plasticity index, respectively. Most of the soils except the weathered soil have shown similar reduction tendency of strength with the increasing number of cycles. Liquefaction strength of coarse and fine soils appears to decrease with the increment of volume decrease potential and the decrement of plasticity index, respectively. Reduction of strength on the weathered soil is particularly remarkable rather than others, which might be owing to the collapse phenomenon. From the DSS test results for soils, proposed is a simple method to evaluate strength decrement with the increasing number of cycles, and it can help estimate decrement of strength with the number of cycles easily.