• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.379-385
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• 2003

In the existing method to design geosynthetic reinforced embankment, the required strength of reinforcements is determined by vertical stress only rather than strain. This strength is not in accord with tensile strength that behaves as reinforcement in earth structures. The reinforcement and adjacent soil on the failure plan behave in one unit at the initial stress phase but they make a gap in strain as stress increases. This issue may cause a big impact as a critical factor on geosynthetic reinforcement design in earth structures. The quantitative analysis on strain behavior was performed with a PET Mat reinforced embankment on soft ground. From this study, several outstanding discussions are found that tensile strength of reinforcement governs the failure of embankment when the soil stress is greater than failure stress. Also the optimum required tensile strength of geosynthetic reinforcement(Tos) should be determined by stress, displacement, displacement gap and safety factor of soil-PET Mat at the location of PET Mat.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.79-91
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• 2016

Geosynthetic-reinforced and Pile-supported (GRPS) embankment method is widely used to construct structures on soft ground due to restraining residual settlement and their rapid construction. However, effect of cyclic loading has not been established although some countries suggest design methods through many studies. In this paper, cyclic loading tests were conducted to analyze dynamic load transfer characteristics of pile-supported embankment reinforced with geosynthetics. A series of 3 case full scale model tests which were non-reinforced, one-layer-reinforced, two-layer reinforced with geosynthetics were performed on piled embankments. In these series of tests, the height of embankment and pile spacing were selected according to EBGEO (2010) standard in Germany. As a result of the vertical load parts on the pile and on the geosynthetic reinforcement measured separately, cyclic loads transferred by only arching effect decreased with strength geosynthetic-reinforced case. However, final loads on the pile showed no differences among the cases. These results conflict with previous studies that reinforcement with geosynthetics increases transfer load concentrated on piles. In addition, it is observed that the load transferred to pile decreases at the beginning of cycle number due to reduction of arching effected by cyclic loading. Based on these results, transferred mechanism for cyclic load on GRPS system has been presented.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.5-21
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• 2007

Despite a number of advantages of reinforced earth walls over conventional concrete retaining walls, there exit concerns over long-term residual deformation when they are subjected to repeated and/or cyclic loads, especially when used as part of permanent structures. In view of these concerns, in this paper time-dependant deformation characteristics of geosynthetic reinforced modular block walls under sustained anuor repeated loads were investigated using reduced-scale model tests. The results indicated that a sustained or repeated load can yield appreciable magnitude of residual deformation, and that the residual deformations are influenced not only by the loading characteristics but by the mechanical properties of geogrid. It is also found that the preloading technique can be effectively used in controlling residual deformations of reinforced soils subjected to sustained and/or repeated loads.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.276-284
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• 2009

Recently pile-supported embankments have emerged as an optimum method when the rapid construction and strict deformation of structures are required on soft soils. Especially geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported (GRPS) embankments are used worldwide as they can provide economic and effective solutions. However the load transfer mechanism in GRPS embankments is very complex, and not yet fully understood. Particularly the purpose and effect of geosynthetic inclusion are ambiguous and considered as an auxiliary measure assisting the arching effect of piles. Numerical parametric study using 3D finite element method has been conducted to investigate the effect of geosynthetic reinforcement on the load transfer mechanism of GRPS embankments. Numerical results suggested that as more stiffer geosynthetic is included, arching effect decreases considerably and the load concentration to the piles mostly caused by tension effect of geosynthetic. This finding is contradictory to the common understanding that geosynthetic inclusion only enhance the efficiency of load transfer. Consequently the design parameters determined from the numerical analyses are compared with those of three existing design methods. The problems of the existing methods are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.3-13
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• 2003

Recently, construction of the reinforced earth structures, which adopts reinforcing materials of geosynthetic, is rapidly increasing due to its good economic advantages, beautiful appearance, and convenient construction. Nonetheless, the most important factor of interpretation and design of the reinforced earth structures, which is assessment ways of friction features between earth and geosynthetic, has not been standardized yet. It has great difference of interpretation and design methods which suggested to the design engineer. This study is to present the way how to assess more reasonably friction features between geogrid and weathered granite soil through the pullout test. Based on a large-scale pullout test of geogrid, the maximum shear stress, interface fricton angle, and friction efficiency are presented with consideration of various test condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.359-366
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• 2009

The present paper analyzes and discusses the effect of facing system and staged construction in GRS (geosynethetic reinforced soil) walls for railway structures throughout various case analyses. The result shows that postconstruction facing system by staged construction procedures is more advantageous for railway structure construction than preconstruction and simultaneous construction facing system with reinforced soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.279-289
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• 2003

Geosynthetic reinforced earth wall was introduced about 20 years ago and many structures have been constructed. Especially, segmental concrete panel facing and friction tie system are the most popular system in Korea, and this friction tie was composed of high tenacity PET filament and LDPE(Low Density Polyethylene) sheath. Due to the lack of direct-test results, design coefficients of friction tie (creep reduction factor) had been determined by quoting the previous and the foreign reference data. This is an unreasonable fact for the use of friction ties. In this study, the creep tests were performed to evaluate the creep behavior of friction tie, and the reduction factor of creep was calculated for the correct design of geosynthetic reinforced earth retaining walls. From the test results, finally it was found that the allowable creep strength of friction tie is 60% of Tult during service life, and creep reduction factor is 1.67 for each grade of friction ties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.337-349
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• 2009

In recent years, the cutting and banking areas along the railway in Korea are exposed to the erosion problem during every year. The reinforcement is a composite construction material in which the strength of engineering fill is enhanced by the addition of strong tensile reinforcement in many different types. Various problems of the railway infrastructure have occurred due to the differential settlement, frost heaving, mud pumping, lack of bearing capacity, partially loss of embankment. In advanced countries, railway roadbed reinforcement is applied to solve these problems on railway roadbed. This paper presents the solution of such problems by means of the engineering works incorporated with railway reinforcement infrastructures such as geotextile bag method, existing grouting method, geocell, reinforced earth, soil nailing and so on.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.96-102
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• 2006

Because of the increasing need to use clayey soil as the backfill in reinforced soil structures and embankment material, nonwoven geotextiles with the drain capability have been receiving much attention. However, there are few studies of the deformation behavior of nonwoven geotextiles at geosynthetics reinforced soil structures in the field because the nonwoven geotextile, which has low tensile stiffness and higher deformability than geogrids and woven geotextiles, is difficult to measure its deformation by strain gauges and to prevent the water from infiltrating. This study proposes a new, more convenient method to measure the deformation behaviour of nonwoven geotextile by using a strain gauge; and examines the availability of the method by conducting laboratory tests and by applying it on two geosynthetics reinforced soil (GRS) walls in the field. A wide-width tensile test conducted under confining pressure of 7kPa showed that the local deformation of nonwoven geotextile measured with strain gauges has a similar pattern to the total deformation measured with LVDT. In the field GRS walls, nonwoven geotextile showed a larger deformation range than the woven geotextile and geogrid; however, the deformation patterns of these three reinforcement materials were similar. The function of strain gauges attached to nonwoven geotextile in the walls works normally for 16 months. Therefore, the method proposed in this study for measuring nonwoven geotextile deformation by using a strain gauge proved useful.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.35-48
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• 1996

Reinforced soil structures may experience large local movements between soil and reinforcement. The failure modes of a reinforced structure depend on several factors which are governed by deformation and slipping of the reinforcement. In some cases, pulling out of the reinforcement may occur instead of rupturing, The growing use of geosynthetic liner system for storage of solid and liquid wastes has led to a number of slope instability problems where the synthetic liner may undergo a large amount of stretching and slipping as a result of the loading. The conventional finite element model for the soil-reinforcement interface uses a zero thickness joint element with normal and shear stiffnesses and can only accommodate a small amount of deformation. When a large slippage occurs, the model provides an i ncorrect mechanism for deformation. This paper presents a new interface finite element model which is able to simulate a large amount of slippage between soil and reinforcement. The formulation of the model is presented and the capability of the model is demonstrated using illustrative examples.