• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.37-43
• /
• 2015

This paper presents a detailed procedure for a nonlinear soil-structure interaction of a seismically isolated NPP(Nuclear Power Plant) structure using the boundary reaction method (BRM). The BRM offers a two-step method as follows: (1) the calculation of boundary reaction forces in the frequency domain on an interface of linear and nonlinear regions, (2) solving the wave radiation problem subjected to the boundary reaction forces in the time domain. For the purpose of calculating the boundary reaction forces at the base of the isolator, the KIESSI-3D program is employed in this study to solve soil-foundation interaction problem subjected to vertically incident seismic waves. Wave radiation analysis is also employed, in which the nonlinear structure and the linear soil region are modeled by finite elements and energy absorbing elements on the outer model boundary using a general purpose nonlinear FE program. In this study, the MIDAS/Civil program is employed for modeling the wave radiation problem. In order to absorb the outgoing elastic waves to the unbounded soil region, spring and viscous-damper elements are used at the outer FE boundary. The BRM technique utilizing KIESSI-3D and MIDAS/Civil programs is verified using a linear soil-structure analysis problem. Finally the method is applied to nonlinear seismic analysis of a base-isolated NPP structure. The results show that BRM can effectively be applied to nonlinear soil-structure interaction problems.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.27 no.10
• /
• pp.81-92
• /
• 2011

The rheological properties of Wyoming bentonites are strongly influenced by the size of particles, cation exchangeable capacity, arrangement and morphology of clay mineral. This paper presents the results of rheological investigations on the Wyoming bentonites aqueous dispersions: two types of particle flocculation were considered. For the Wyoming bentonite, 0g/L and 30g/L NaCl equivalent salinity were added in fresh and salt water to examine the rheological behavior. This paper examined the general rheological characteristics, compatibility of rheological models and correlation between soil structure and change in rheological properties of Wyoming bentonite caused by increasing salinity. From flow curves of bentonites hydrated with fresh water and salt water, the observed general flow behavior is very close to shear thinning with yield stress (or ideal Bingham fluid with yield stress and plastic viscosity). However, the change of shear stress at the same shear rate is clear, particularly for lower shear rate. Well-known rheological models are used to fit the data. There is a good agreement between rheological model and data: Carreau, Herschel-Bulkley and power-law for S=0g/L and bilinear, Herschel-Bulkley and power-law for S=30g/L. It may be due to the fact that the internal structural bonding (strong modification of particle-particle interactions from edge-to-edge and/or edge-to-face to face-to-face) in soil matrix is affected from the evolution of rheological properties with different salinities.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.53-60
• /
• 2007

L/EPS, manufactured in the shape of block and used for civil engineering, is a lightweight material with an excellent resistance to compression, and provides a superb self-sufficient stability. EPS is a suitable material capable of resolving the problem of settlement and lateral flow if it is applied as the soil on soft ground. The Korean Standards (KS) has not yet proposed any testing method for use of EPS as an engineering banking material. Only its testing and quality ordinance as a heat insulation material has been standardized. The design criteria for EPS has been established and applied through the trial construction of KHC (Korea Highway Corporation) and quality test of manufacturer, but most studies on them have been confined to factory products. This study is focused on comparing and analyzing long-term durability by conducting cyclic load test, freezing and thawing test, absorption rate test and others. EPS used in the test was chosen from construction sites and factory products, focusing on the long-term durability of EPS depending on the passage of time. Unconfined compression test results indicated that the strength of collected samples was lower than factory products. While the triaxial compression test results indicated that the shear strength increased in proportion to the increase of confining pressure, and factory products had declining shear strength as the confining pressure rose.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.357-373
• /
• 2013

In this paper, a back analysis program for analyzing the behavior of tunnel-ground system and evaluating the material properties and tunnel design parameters was developed. This program was designed to be able to implement the back analysis of underground structure by combination of using FLAC and optimized algorithm as direct method. In particular, Rosenbrock method which is able to do direct search without obtaining differential coefficient was adopted for the back analysis algorithm among optimization methods. This back analysis program was applied to the site to evaluate the design parameters. The back analysis was carried out using field measurement results from 5 sites. In the course of back analysis, nonlinear regression analysis was carried out to identify the optimum function of the measured ground displacement. Exponential function and fractional function were used for the regression analysis and total displacement calculated by optimum function was used as the back analysis input data. As a result, displacement recalculated through the back analysis using measured displacement of the structure showed 4.5% of error factor comparing to the measured data. Hence, the program developed in this study proved to be effectively applicable to tunnel analysis.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.37-45
• /
• 2009

The experimental study was carried out to evaluate the characteristics of the point load index and the uniaxial compressive strength of inherently anisotropic shale in the laboratory. In the testing program the effects of size and the shape on the point load index were investigated both in the axial and diametral direction. In general, the point load index of the shale was constant when the length/diameter (L/D) ratio of the specimen is greater than 1.0 in the diametral direction. The point load index in axial direction shows slight decrease as the L/D ratio is increased and the corner breakage was observed when L/D ratio is greater than unity. The minimum point load index was observed in the bedding angle of $\beta=15^{\circ}{\sim}30^{\circ}$ in the axial point load tests and of $\beta=30^{\circ}$ in the uniaxial compression tests. The relationship between the point load index and the uniaxial compressive strength was linear to ${\sigma}_c=25.0 I_{s(50)}$ for the specimen with the bedding plane angle, $\beta$ at the range of $0^{\circ}{\sim}90^{\circ}$. On the other hand, this relationship was appeared linear to ${\sigma}_c=14.4 I_{s(50)}$ when the bedding angle, $\beta$ is fixed to 90${^{\circ}}$ and this correlation is much different from ${\sigma}c=22 I_{s(50)}, which is generally applied to the rock specimen with no bedding plane in ISRM (1985). The anisotropic strength with different $\beta$ angle shows the shoulder type and this can be suitably modelled by the corrected Ramamurthy'(1993)s equation with the index value of 'n' equal to 3.0.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.261-271
• /
• 2003

A condition evaluation procedure for the pavement foundations using multi-load level Falling Weight Deflectometer(FWD) deflections is presented in this paper. A dynamic finite element program incorporating a stress-dependent material model, was used to generate the synthetic deflection database. Based on this synthetic database, the relationships between surface deflections and critical responses, such as stresses and strains in base and subgrade layers, have been established. FWD deflection data, Dynamic Cone Penetrometer(UP) data, and repeated load resilient modulus testing results used in developing this procedure were collected from the Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) and North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) database. Research effort focused on investigation of the effect of the FWD load level on the condition evaluation procedures. The results indicate that the proposed procedure can estimate the pavement foundation conditions. It is also found that structurally adjusted Base Damage Index (BDI) and Base Curvature Index (BCI) are good indicators for the prediction of stiffness characteristics of aggregate base and subgrade respectively. A FWD test with a load of 66.7 kN or less does not improve the accuracy of this procedure. Results from the study for the nonlinear behavior of a pavement foundations indicate that the deflection ratio obtained from multi-load level deflections can predict the type and quality of the pavement foundation materials.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.133-144
• /
• 2003

The resonant column testing is a laboratory testing method to determine the shear modulus and material damping factor of soils. The method has been widely used for many applications and its importance has increased. Since the first use of the testing method in 1960's, the low-technology electronic devices fir testing and data acquisition have limited the measurement only to the amplitude of the linear spectrum. The limitations of the testing method are also attributed to the assumption of linear-elastic material in the theory of the resonant column testing and also to the incomplete understanding of the dynamic behaviour of the resonant column testing device. Recently, Joh et al. proposed a theory to overcome the limitations of the resonant column testing by deriving the equation of motion and providing its solution for the resonant column testing device. This study proposed the improved data reduction and analysis method for the resonant column testing, thanks to the advanced data acquisition system and the new theoretical solution for the resonant column testing system. For the verification of the proposed data reduction and analysis method, the numerical simulation of the resonant column testing was performed by the finite element analysis. Also, a series of resonant column testing were performed fir Joomunjin sand, which verified the feasibility of the proposed method and revealed the limitations of the conventional data reduction and analysis method.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.93-101
• /
• 2020

In order to predict the nonlinear behaviour of the soil, the elasto-plastic hyperbolic model was selected, which was considered to be relatively simple and highly predictable. The soil parameter determination and the behavior analysis program were developed by formalizing the functions related to the constitutive model. Each soil parameter was determined from the results of the drained triaxial compression tests of Baekma river sand with the change of relative density. The stress-strain behavior was predicted using the soil parameters determined under each condition. As a result, the deviator stress for the axial strain is verified to have a good match between the measured value and predicted value at each relative density. In the relationship between the volumetric stain and the axial strain, when the relative density is loose, the measured value and predicted value tend to match, and when relative density is dense, the predicted value of the volumetric strain appears somewhat smaller than the measured value due to the limitation of the constitutive model.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2008.10a
• /
• pp.1115-1123
• /
• 2008

When constructing projects such as road embankments, bridge approaches, dikes or buildings on soft, compressible soils, significant settlements may occur due to the consolidation of these soils under the superimposed loads. The compressibility of the soil skeleton of a soft clay is influenced by such factors as structure and fabric, stress path, temperature and loading rate. Although it is possible to determine appropriate relations and the corresponding material parameters in the laboratory, it is well known that sample disturbance due to stress release, temperature change and moisture content change can have a profound effect on the compressibility of a clay. The early research of Tezaghi and Casagrande has had a lasting influence on our interpretation of consolidation data. The 24 hour, incremental load, oedometer test has become, more or less, the standard procedure for determining the one-dimensional, stress-strain behavior of clays. An important notion relates to the interpretation of the data is the ore-consolidation pressure ${\sigma}_p$, which is located approximately at the break in the slope on the curve. From a practical point of view, this pressure is usually viewed as corresponding to the maximum past effective stress supported by the soil. Researchers have shown, however, that the value of ${\sigma}_p$ depends on the test procedure. furthermore, owing to sampling disturbance, the results of the laboratory consolidation test must be corrected to better capture the in-situ compressibility characteristics. The corrections apply, strictly speaking, to soils where the relation between strain and effective stress is time independent. An important assumption in Terzaghi's one-dimensional theory of consolidation is that the soil skeleton behaves elastically. On the other hand, Buisman recognized that creep deformations in settlement analysis can be important. this has led to extensions to Terzaghi's theory by various investigators, including the applicant and coworkers. The main object of this study is to suggestion the modified compression index value to predict settlements by back calculating the $C_c$ from different numerical models, which are giving best prediction settlements for multi layers including very thick soft clay.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.15-26
• /
• 2019

The stability of the gravity quay wall against earthquakes is evaluated on the basis of the allowable displacement of the wall. To estimate the displacement caused by external forces, empirical equations based on the Newmark sliding block method or numerical analysis are widely used. In numerical analysis, it is possible to analyze precisely a complicated site and structure, but difficult to set the appropriate parameters and environments; there are limitations in obtaining reliable results, depending on one's level of expertise. The Newmark method, with only seismic motions, is widely used because it is simpler than numerical simulations when estimating permanent displacement. However, the empirical equations do not have any parameters for the response characteristics and sliding block of the structure, and sliding blocks being assumed as rigid bodies does not consider the nonlinear behavior of the soil and interaction with the structure. Therefore, in order to evaluate the seismic stability of the gravity quay wall, a newly-developed empirical equation is needed to overcome the above-mentioned limitations. In this study, numerical simulations are performed to analyze the response characteristics of the backfill of the structure, and to propose an optimal method of calculating the active area. For this purpose, finite element analyses were performed to analyze the response characteristics, and stress-strain relationships for various seismic motions. As a result, the response characteristics, sliding block, and failure surface of the backfill vary depending on the input seismic motions.