• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.75-86
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• 2009

Salt, one of the most common soluble materials in engineering soil, may have an effect on mechanical behaviors of soils under its cementation process. In order to investigate this natural phenomenon, non-soluble material by using glass beads is mixed with salt electrolyte and cemented by using oven to evaporate water. Three different sizes of glass bead particles, 0.26, 0.5, and 1.29 mm, with different salt concentration, 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0M, are explored by using P- and S-waves, excited by bender elements and piezo disk elemets, respectively. The velocities of the P-wave and S-wave of the particulate medium cemented by salt show three stages with the degree of saturation: 1) S-wave velocities increase while P-wave velocities reduce with degree of saturation changing from 100% to 90%; 2) Both velocities are stable with degree of saturation varying from 90% to 10%; 3) The velocities change enormously when the specimens are nearly dry with degree of saturation from 10% to 0%. Besides, the resonance frequencies of S-wave show similar stages to the S-wave velocities. This study demonstrates meaningful trends of elastic wave characteristics of geo-materials according to the cementation of dissolved salt.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.2C
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• pp.85-93
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• 2010

The shear stiffness has become an important design parameter to understand the soil behavior. In particular, the elastic moduli and void ratio has been considered as important parameters for the design of the geotechnical structures. The objective of this paper is the development of the penetration type Field Velocity and Resistivity Probe (FVRP) which is able to assess the elastic moduli and void ratio based on the elastic wave velocities and electrical resistivity. The elastic waves including the compressional and shear wave are measured by piezo disk elements and bender elements. And the electrical resistivity is measured by the resistivity probe, which is manufactured and installed at the tip of the FVRP. The penetration tests are carried out in calibration chamber and field. In the laboratory calibration chamber test, after the sand-clay slurry mixtures are prepared and consolidated. The FVRP is progressively penetrated and the data are measured at each 1 cm. The field experiment is also carried out in the southern part of Korea Peninsular. Data gathering is performed in the depth of 6~20 m at each 10 cm. The elastic moduli and void ratio are estimated based on the analytical and empirical solutions by using the elastic wave velocities and electrical resistivity measured in the chamber and field. The void ratios based on the elastic wave velocities and the electrical resistivity are similar to the volume based void ratio. This study suggests that the FVRP, which evaluates the elastic wave velocities and the electrical resistivity, may be a useful instrument for assessing the elastic moduli and void ratio in soft soils.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.47-56
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• 2014

In winter season, the pore water inside the ground freezes and thaws repetitively due to the cold air temperature. When the freezing-thawing processes are repeated on the ground, the change in soil particle structure occurs and thus the damage of the infrastructure may be following. This study was performed in order to investigate the stiffness change of soils due to the freeze-thaw by using elastic waves. Sand-silt mixtures are prepared with in the silt fraction of 40 %, 60 % and 80 % in weight and in the degree of saturation of 40 %. The specimens are placed into the square freezing-thawing cell by the temping method. For the measurement of the elastic waves, a pair of the bender elements and a pair of piezo disk elements are installed on the cell, and a thermocouple is inserted into soils for the measurement of the temperature. The temperature of the mixtures is decreased from $20^{\circ}C$ to $-10^{\circ}C$ during freezing, is maintained at $-20^{\circ}C$ for 18 hours, is gradually increased up to the room temperature of $20^{\circ}C$ to thaw the specimens. The shear waves, the compressional waves and the temperature are measured during the freeze-thaw process. The experimental result indicates that the shear and the compressional wave velocities after thawing are smaller than those of before freezing. The velocity ratio of after thawing to before freezing of shear wave is smaller than that of the compressional wave. As silt fraction increases from 40 % to 80 %, the shear and compressional wave velocities are gradually increased. This study suggests that the freezing-thawing process in unsaturated soil loosens the soil particle structure, and the shear wave velocity reflects the effect of freezing-thawing more sensitively than the compressional wave velocity.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2008

The method to prepare the large cemented sand specimen for calibration chamber test by air-pluviation is investigated in this study. The uniformity of cemented specimen is evaluated by performing the CPTs, DMTs, and bender element tests in the calibration chamber. The sand particles, pre-wetted with 0.5% water content, are mixed with gypsum to provide the homogeneous coating of gypsum particles on the grain surface. It was shown that the pre-wetting of particle surface is effective to minimize the potential for segregation between sands and gypsum during air-pluviation. It was observed that the extreme void ratios ($e_{max}\;and\;e_{mix}$) of the mixture of pre-wetted sand and gypsum powder increase at lower gypsum content while those of the mixture of dry sand and gypsum decrease with increasing gypsum content. It was also shown from the test results that large cemented specimens reconstituted in calibration chamber by rainer system are quite uniform in vertical and horizontal directions.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.103-111
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• 2008

Soils naturally contain grains of different minerals which may be dissolved under chemical or physical processes. The dissolution leads changes in microstructure of particulate media, such as an increase in local void or permeability, which affects the strength and deformation of soils. This study focuses on the small strain stiffness characteristics of vanishing mixtures, which consist of sand and salt particles at different volume fractions. Experiments are carried out in a conventional oedometer cell (Ko-loading) integrated with bender elements for the measurement of shear waves. Dissolutions of particles are implemented by saturating the mixtures at various confining stresses. Axial deformation and shear waves are recorded after each loading stage and during dissolution process. Experimental results show that after dissolution, the vertical strain and the void ratio increase, while the shear wave velocity and small strain shear modulus decrease. The decrease of the velocity results from the void ratio increase and particle contact decrease. The process monitoring during dissolution of the particles shows that the vertical strain dramatically increases at the beginning of the saturation process and converges after vanishing process finishes, and that the shear wave velocity decreases at the beginning and increases due to the particle reorientation. Specimens prepared by sand and salt particles are proved to be able to provide a valuable insight in macro structural behaviors of the vanishings mixtures.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.6C
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• pp.285-293
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• 2012

The surface tension, which is generated in the unsaturated soils, increases the stiffness of the soils. The objective of this study is to estimate the effect of the surface tension, which varies according to the temperature, on the shear wave velocity. Nine specimens, which have the different degree of saturation (0%, 2.5%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%), are prepared by using sand-silt mixtures. Experiments are carried out in a nylon cell designed for the measurement of shear waves. A pair of bender elements, which are used for the generation and detection of shear waves, is installed as a cross-hole type. The shear waves are continuously monitored and measured as the temperature of specimens decreases from $15^{\circ}C$ to $1^{\circ}C$. The results show that shear wave velocities of the fully saturated and fully dried specimens change a little bit as the temperatures of specimens decrease. However, the shear wave velocities of the specimens with the degree of saturations of 2.5%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% continuously increase as temperature decreases from $15^{\circ}C$ to $1^{\circ}C$. Furthermore, a fully saturated specimen is dried at the temperature of $70^{\circ}C$ in order to observe the shear waves according to degree of saturation. The shear wave velocities measured at the temperature of $70^{\circ}C$ are generally lower than those measured at temperature of $15^{\circ}C$. This study demonstrates that the dependence of shear wave velocities on the temperature according to the degree of saturation should be taken into account in both laboratory and field tests.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.93-102
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• 2015

The characteristics of frozen soils are one of most important factors for foundation design in cold region. The objective of this study is to evaluate the shear strength and stiffness of frozen soils according to the confining conditions during the freezing and shearing phase. A direct shear box is constructed for the frozen specimens and bender elements are mounted on the wall of the shear box to measure shear wave velocities. Specimens are prepared by mixing sand and silt with a silt fraction of 30% in weight and the degree of saturation of 10%, giving a relative density of 60% for all tests. The temperature of the specimens in the freezer is allowed to fall below -5℃, and then direct shear tests are performed. A series of vertical stresses are applied during the freezing and shearing phase. Shear stress, vertical displacement, and shear wave along the horizontal displacement are measured. Experimental results show that in all the tests, shear strength increases with increasing vertical stress applied during the freezing and shearing phases. The magnitude of the increase in shear strength with increasing vertical stress during shearing under fixed vertical stress in the frozen state is smaller than the magnitude of the increase in vertical stress during freezing and shearing. In addition, the change in shear wave velocities varies with the position of the bender elements. In the case of shear waves passing through the shear plane, the shear wave velocities decrease with increasing horizontal displacement. This study provides an evaluation of the properties of shear strength and stiffness of frozen soils under varied confining condition.