• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.27-36
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• 2012

The water in surface of the earth is frozen under freezing point. The freezing phenomenon, which causes the volume change of soils, affects on the behavior of soils and causes the significant damage on the geotechnical structures. The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of elastic waves in sand-silt mixtures using small size freezing cells, which reflect the frozen ground condition due to temperature change. Experiments are carried out in a nylon cell designed to freeze soils from top to bottom. Bender elements and piezo disk elements are used as the shear and compressional wave transducers. Three pairs of bender elements and piezo disk elements are placed on three locations along the depth. The specimen, which is prepared by mixing sand and silt, is frozen in the refrigerator. The temperature of soils changes from $20^{\circ}C$ to $-10^{\circ}C$. The velocities, resonant frequencies and amplitudes of the shear and compressional waves are continuously measured. Experimental results show that the shear and compressional wave velocities and resonant frequencies increase dramatically near the freezing points. The amplitudes of shear and compressional waves show the different tendency. The dominant factors that affect on the shear wave velocity change from the effective stress to the ice bonding due to freezing. This study provides basic information about the characteristics of elastic waves due to the soil freezing.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.5-17
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• 2007

Various field setup and filtering criteria have been suggested to avoid the near field effects in surface wave methods. Unlike other surface wave methods HWAW method uses the near field component positively. It is possible by using maximum energy point based on time-frequency map and inversion method to consider receiver locations from the source point and body wave component. To verify the HWAW method in the near field numerical study was performed and the wave propagation in the stratified soil media was simulated due to a surface point load. All of five representative soil models were used. The experimental dispersion curves, determined by HWAW method at the various receiver distances in the region of near field, all coincided well with the theoretical dispersion curves determined by 3D forward modeling (Kausel's method). Consequently, it was considered that the HWAW method can provide reliable $V_s$ profiles effectively in the near field.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.67-76
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• 2006

The reasonable assessment of the shear stiffness of a dredged soft ground and soft clay is difficult due to the soil disturbance. This study addresses the development and application of a new in-situ shear wave measuring apparatus (field velocity probe: FVP), which overcomes several of the limitations of conventional methods. Design concerns of this new apparatus include the disturbance of soils, cross-talking between transducers, electromagnetic coupling between cables, self acoustic insulation, the constant travel distance of S-wave, the rotation of the transducer, directly transmitted wave through a frame from transducer to transducer, and protection of the transducer and the cable. These concerns are effectively eliminated by continuous improvements through performing field and laboratory tests. The shear wave velocity of the FVP is simply calculated, without any inversion process, by using the travel distance and the first arrival time. The developed FVP Is tested in soil up to 30m in depth. The experimental results show that the FVP can produce every detailed shear wave velocity profiles in sand and clay layers. In addition, the shear wave velocity at the tested site correlates well with the cone tip resistance. This study suggests that the FVP may be an effective technique for measuring the shear wave velocity in the field to assess dynamic soil properties in soft ground.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.41-51
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• 2012

Soils are commonly unsaturated in the near surface. The stiffness of soils is affected by the amount of air and water. The objective of this study is to evaluate the porosity of the unsaturated soils by using the elastic waves including compressional and shear waves. The elastic waves are measured at different degrees of saturation by controlling the matric suction. Thus, the unsaturated soils are characterized at different levels of the matric suction. Shear and compressional waves are measured by using the bender elements and the piezo disk elements, respectively. Both transducers are installed on the walls of the rectangular cell. The unsaturated soils are prepared by using uniform size sands and silts. Test results show that both compressional and shear wave velocities change according to the matric suction. The elastic modulus, the shear modulus, and the Poisson's ratio are estimated based on the measured elastic wave velocities. In addition, the void ratio of the unsaturated soils estimated using elastic wave velocities matches well with the volume based void ratio. This study demonstrates that the elastic waves can be effectively used for the characterization of unsaturated soils.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.15-24
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• 2021

In Korea, which is mostly mountainous, the proportion of tunnel and underground space development are increasing. Although the ground is reinforced by applying the ground improvement method during underground space development, accidents still occur frequently in Korea. In the grouting method, a representative ground reinforcement method, the effect was judged by comparing the total amount of injection material with the amount of injection material used during the actual grouting construction. However, it is difficult to determine whether the ground reinforcement is properly performed during construction or within the target ground. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to study a new method for quality control during or after construction by measuring electrical resistivity after performing grouting by mixing carbon fiber, which is a conductive material, and microcement, which is a grout material. In this study, as a basic study, a cement specimen mix ed with 0%, 3%, 5%, 7% of carbon fiber was prepared to evaluate the performance of the grout material mixed with carbon fiber, which is a conductive material. The prepared specimens were wet curing for 3 days, 7 days, and 28 days under 99% humidity, and then compression wave velocity and shear wave velocity were measured. As a result of the compression wave velocity and shear wave velocity measurement, it showed a tendency to increase with the increase in the compounding ratio of carbon fibers and the number of days of age, and it was confirmed that the elastic modulus and shear modulus, which are the stiffness of the material, also increased.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.1063-1075
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• 2013

The strength of frozen soils is one of the significant design parameters for the construction in frozen ground. The properties of frozen soils should be investigated to understand the strength of frozen soils. The objective of this study is to figure out the characteristics of elastic waves in frozen soils, which reflect the constituent and physical structure of frozen soils in order to provide fundamental information of those according to the degree of saturation. Freezing cell is manufactured to freeze specimens, which are prepared with the degree of saturation of 10%, 40%, and 100%. Piezo disk elements are used as the compressional wave transducers and Bender elements are used as the shear wave transducers. While the temperature of specimens changes from $20^{\circ}C$ to $-10^{\circ}C$, the velocities, resonant frequencies and amplitudes of the compressional and shear waves are investigated based on the elastic wave signatures. Experimental results reveal that the elastic wave velocities increase as the degree of saturation increases. The variation of resonant frequencies coincide with that of elastic wave velocities. A marked discrepancy in amplitudes of compressional and shear waves are observed at the temperature of $0^{\circ}C$. This study renders the basic information of elastic waves in frozen soils according the degree of saturation.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.57-65
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• 2014

For economic and technical reasons, it is difficult to obtain high quality undisturbed cohesionless samples, hence most researchers rely on preparing remolded and reconstituted representative samples of sandy soils. In this study, moist tamping, air pluviation, and dry deposition methods were applied to make remolded samples at similar relative densities. A series of isotropically consolidated drained tests were conducted with accompanied by measured elastic wave velocities in order to evaluate a difference between sample preparation methods and relative densities. For the elastic wave velocity measurements, piezoelectric elements were installed on the top and bottom cap of the triaxial device. The results showed that soil behavior relies on sample preparation methods, and that the trend of shear wave velocity was the same with volumetric strain behavior.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.2C
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• pp.125-131
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• 2008

Ground stiffness(shear wave velocity) is one of the key parameters in geotechnical earthquake engineering. An In-situ seismic technique has its own advantages and disadvantages over the others in stiffness measurements. By combining the crosshole and seismic cone techniques and utilizing favourable features of bender elements, a new hybrid probe has been developed in order to enhance data quality and easiness of testing. The basic structure of the probe, called "MudFork" is a fork composed of two blades, on each of which source and receiver bender elements were mounted respectively. To evaluate the disturbance caused by the penetration of the probe, shear wave velocity measurements were carried out in the Kaolinite slurry in the laboratory. Finally, the probe was penetrated in coastal mud near Incheon, Korea, using SPT(standard penetration test)rods pushed with a routine boring machine and shear wave velocity measurements were carried out. The results were verified with data from laboratory and cone testing. The performance of the probe turns out to be excellent in terms of data quality and testing convenience.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.255-260
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• 2006

Measurements in two adjacent (about 1.5 m separation) boreholes reveal that there is a significant degree of variations in the width and property (permeability) of shear zones in the granitic rock. A high frequency (>10 kHz) cross-well seismic tomography was conducted to characterize the features of permeability distribution at the shear zones in the inter-well region. At the shear zones, the correlation between the permeability at the well location and the velocity pattern shown in the cross-well velocity tomogram suggests that a high resolution velocity tomogram may provide useful information for the shear zone characteristics, such as permeability, fracture density, width, and length.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.15-23
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• 2017

The evaluation of earthquake load on the surface is very important factor for the seismic reinforcement of existing building, and the magnitude of earthquake load depends on a shear wave velocity profile of soil under a building. To determine a shear wave velocity profile under a existing building, test method should be able to determine a reliable shear wave velocity profile under conditions such as heavy background noise and the small test area, and be sensitive to the variation of material property. In this research, HWAW (Harmonic Wavelet Analysis of Waves) method is applied to determine a shear wave velocity profile under a existing building. In this paper, through numerical simulations and field tests, the feasibility of the proposed method was shown.