• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.827-836
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• 2016

The rate of softening is an important factor to determine whether the failure occurs along localized shear band or in a more diffused manner. In this paper, strength loss and softening rate effect depending on sensitivity are investigated for weakly cemented clays, for both artificially cemented high plasticity San Francisco Bay Mud and low plasticity Yolo Loam. Destructuration and softening behavior for weakly cemented sensitive clays are demonstrated and discussed through multiple vane shear tests. Artificial sensitive clays are prepared in the laboratory for physical modeling or constitutive modeling using a small amount of cement (2 to 5%) with controlled initial water content and curing period. Through test results, shear band thickness is theoretically computed and the rate of softening is represented as a newly introduced parameter, ${\omega}_{80%}$. Consequently, it is found that the softening rate increases with sensitivity for weakly cemented sensitive clays. Increased softening rate represents faster strength loss to residual state and faster minimizing of shear band thickness. Uncemented clay has very low softening rate to 80% strength drop. Also, it is found that higher brittleness index ($I_b$) relatively shows faster softening rate. The result would be beneficial to study of physical modeling for sensitive clays in that artificially constructed high sensitivity (up to $S_t=23$) clay exhibits faster strain softening, which results in localized shear band failure once it is remolded.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09b
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• pp.61-67
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• 2010

Thick soft clay deposits which are generally located at the west and south coast of the Korean peninsula have complicated characteristics according to their orientation and formation history. Thus, several geotechnical problems could possibly occur when those soft clay deposits are used as foundations for marine structures. Deep cement mixing (DCM) method is one of the most widely used soft soil improvement method for various marine structures, nowadays. DCM method injects binders such as cement into the soft ground directly and mixes with the in-situ soil to improve the strength and other geotechnical properties sufficiently. However, the natural impacts induced by dynamic motions such as ocean waves, wind, typhoon, and tusnami give significant influences on the stability of marine structures and their underlaying foundations. Thus, the dynamic properties become important design criteria to insure the seismic stability of marine structures. In this study, the dynamic behavior of cemented Busan clay is evaluated. Laboratory unconfined compression test and resonant column test are performed on natural in-situ soil and cement mixed specimens to confirm the strength and strain-dependent dynamic behavior variation induced by cement mixing treatment. Results show that the unconfined compressive strength and shear modulus increase with curing time and cement content increment. Finally, the optimized cement mixing ratio for sufficient dynamic stability is obtained through this study. The results of this study are expected to be widely used to improve the reliability of seismic design for marine structures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1999.11b
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• pp.15-31
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• 1999

The Pusan Clay is analyzed hereafter from a point of view of mineralogy and microstructure. Results indicate that the Pusan Clay is basically illitic in nature and that the soil microstructure reveals some characteristics which could be responsible for its brittle behavior as observed from sample disturbance. The overall analysis would tend to consider that the Pusan Clay profile analyzed here shows mechanical properties similar to well structured soils or so-called cemented soils.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.599-611
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• 2022

Tendon reinforced cemented soil is applied extensively in foundation stabilisation and improvement, especially in areas with soft clay. To solve the deterioration problem led by steel corrosion, the glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) tendon is introduced to substitute the traditional steel tendon. The interface bond strength between the cemented soil matrix and GFRP tendon demonstrates the outstanding mechanical property of this composite. However, the lack of research between the influence factors and bond strength hinders the application. To evaluate these factors, back propagation neural network (BPNN) is applied to predict the relationship between them and bond strength. Since adjusting BPNN parameters is time-consuming and laborious, the particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm is proposed. This study evaluated the influence of water content, cement content, curing time, and slip distance on the bond performance of GFRP tendon-reinforced cemented soils (GTRCS). The results showed that the ultimate and residual bond strengths were both in positive proportion to cement content and negative to water content. The sample cured for 28 days with 30% water content and 50% cement content had the largest ultimate strength (3879.40 kPa). The PSO-BPNN model was tuned with 3 neurons in the input layer, 10 in the hidden layer, and 1 in the output layer. It showed outstanding performance on a large database comprising 405 testing results. Its higher correlation coefficient (0.908) and lower root-mean-square error (239.11 kPa) were obtained compared to multiple linear regression (MLR) and logistic regression (LR). In addition, a sensitivity analysis was applied to acquire the ranking of the input variables. The results illustrated that the cement content performed the strongest influence on bond strength, followed by the water content and slip displacement.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.285-289
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• 2005

The Cenozoic Era consists of two period , the Tertiary and the Quaternary Period. Weak rock types may include areas containing: 1) poorly cemented or uncemented sediments, 2) highly weathered rock, or 3) fault lines. Especially this paper deal with poorly cemented or uncemented sedimentary rocks in slope. Mechanical weathering is caused by physical processes such as absorption and release of water, and changes in temperature and stress at or near the exposed rock surface. It results in the opening of discontinuities, the formation of new discontinuities by rock fracture, the opening of grain boundaries, and the fracture or cleavage of individual mineral grains. Decomposition causes some silicate minerals such as feldspars to change to clay minerals. There was a strong negative correlation between water absorption and important engineering properties such as strength and durability.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.6C
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• pp.213-220
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• 2011

Fines such as silt or clay are usually mixed with granular particles in natural or reclaimed soils which are slightly cemented. Such fines contained within weakly cemented soils may influence permeability and also mechanical behavior of the soils. In this study, a series of unconfined compression tests on weakly cemented sands with fines are carried out in order to evaluate the effect of fines on unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of cemented soils. Two different cement ratios and fine types were used and fine contents varied by 5, 10, and 15%. Two types of specimens were prepared in this testing. One is the specimen with the same compaction energy applied. The other is the one with the same dry density by varying compaction energy. When the same amount of compaction energy was applied to a specimen, its density increased as a fine content increased. As a result, the UCS of cemented soils with fines increased up to 2.6 times that of one without fines as an amount of fines increased. However, when the specimen was prepared to have the same density, its UCS slightly decreased and then increased a little as a fine content increased. Under the same conditions, a UCS of the specimen with silt was stronger than the one with kaolin. As a cement ratio increased, a UCS increased regardless of fine type and content.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.119-129
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• 2001

연약지반 개량을 위한 시멘트의 사용은 깊은 심도의 점토 지반을 개량하는데 일반적으로 사용되는 기술이 되었다. 시멘트는 지반의 강도를 증가시키고 압축성을 감소시키는 역할을 한다. 시멘트-흙 혼합물의 강도 증가에는 여러 가지 요소가 있는데 이중 대표적인 것은 시멘트량, 흙의 종류, 함수비, 양생시간 등을 들 수 있다. 시멘트 첨가량이 적은 경우, 전단 강도증가는 기본적으로 시멘테이션 효과로 인한 점착력의 증가에 의한 입자들간의 마찰력으로부터 발생한다. 이러한 거동은 과압밀된 흙의 거동과 유사함을 볼 수 있다. 시멘트량이 많은 경우, 강도 증가의 주원인은 입자간의 물리적 결합에 기인하는데 이는 연약한 암석과 비슷한 거동을 한다. 시멘트 고화처리 흙의 응력-변형 거동을 분석하기 위해 한계상태 이론을 적용하였다. 그리고, 토립자간의 시멘테이션 효과를 반영하기 위해 새로운 한계상태 파라메타를 도입하였으며 시멘트 고화처리 점토의 거동을 분석하기 위한 새로운 한계상태 모델을 제시하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.75-83
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• 2002

This paper is to investigate the mechanical characteristics of light-weighted soils (LWS) consisting of expanded polystyrene(EPS), dredged clays and cement by using both uniaxial and triaxial compression tests. The mechanical characteristics of the compressive strength of LWS are analysed with varying initial water contents of dredged clays, EPS ratio, cement ratio, and curing stress. In the triaxial compression state, it is found that the compressive strength of LWS containing EPS is independent on the effective confined stress. As the EPS ratio decreases($A_E$<2%) and cement ratio increases($A_c$>2%), the behavior characteristics of triaxial compressive strength-strain relationship is similar to that of cemented soil which decreases rapidly in compressive strength after ultimate compressive strength. For the applications of LWS to ground improvements which require the compressive strength of up to 200kPa, the optimized EPS ratio and initial water content of dredged clay are estimated to be 3~4% and 165~175%, respectively. Also, the ultimate compressive strength under both triaxial test and uniaxial compression states are almost constant for a cement ratio of up to 2% and then critical cement ratio of this LWS shall be 2%.