• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.61-70
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• 2008

In this study, undrained triaxial (CU) tests were performed on low-plastic silt of Nakdong River in order to investigate the undrained shear behavior of low-plastic silt. In experimental results, the deviator stress showed the hardening behavior after reaching its yield stress like the tendency of common sand, and the pore water pressure was gradually decreased to critical state after the maximum value. In the effective stress paths, regardless of consolidation stress or overconsolidation ratios, both a critical state line (CSL) and a phase transformation line (PTL) exist in the effective stress path that is similar to the case of sand. The behavior of low-plastic silt was predicted by the Modified Cam-Clay (MCC) model, the Jordan and the Elman-jordan model that is artificial neural network model. According to predicted results, the overall undrained shear behavior of low-plastic silt could not be predicted with the MCC model, but the Jordan and Elman-Jordan model showed well-matched experiment results.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.297-316
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• 2014

This paper presents a detailed study focused on investigating the effects of silt content on the static and dynamic properties of sand-silt mixtures. Specimens with a low-plastic silt content of 0, 15, 30 and 50% by weight were tested in static triaxial, cyclic triaxial, and resonant columns in addition to consolidation tests to determine such parameters as compression index, internal friction angle, cohesion, cyclic stress ratio, maximum shear modulus, normalized shear modulus and damping ratio. The test procedures were performed on specimens of three cases: constant void ratio index, e = 0.582; same peak deviator stress of 290 kPa; and constant relative density, $D_r$ = 30%. The test results obtained for both the constant-void-ratio-index and constant-relative-density specimens showed that as silt content increased, the internal friction angle, cyclic stress ratio and maximum shear modulus decreased, but cohesion increased. In testing of the same deviator stress specimens, both cohesion and internal friction angle were insignificantly altered with the increase in silt content. In addition, as silt content increased, the maximum shear modulus increased. The cyclic stress ratio first decreased as silt content increased to reach the threshold silt content and increased thereafter with further increases in silt content. Furthermore, the damping ratio was investigated based on different silt contents in three types of specimens.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.27-38
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• 2015

Triaxial tests on sand-silt mixture specimens under low and high confining pressures were performed to understand their shear behaviors. The fines content in the mixture is lower than the threshold value. A series of tests under different conditions including fines contents (0%, 9.8%, 14.7%, 19.6%), density of specimen (controlled by different compaction energies of $E_c=22kJ/m^3$, $E_c=504kJ/m^3$), confining pressure (100 kPa, 1 MPa, 3 MPa, 5 MPa) were performed to investigate influences of these factors. Based on the test results, the threshold fines content, where the dominant structure of mixture changes from sand-matrix to fines-matrix, decreases with the increase of confining pressure. Under very high confining pressures, as a result of sand particle crushing, the behavior of the dense specimen is similar to that of the loose specimen which shows hardening, compression behavior, and shear strength increases with increase of fines content. In conclusion, silt is granular material like sand, and its influence on shear behavior of sand-silt mixture is very different from that of plastic fines on sand-fines mixture.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.41-50
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• 2007

The results from normally consolidated isotropic drained and undrained triaxial compression tests (NCIU and NCID) on sand with high silt content were presented in this paper. The experiments were performed on specimens of Nak-dong River sand with 63% silt content under effective confined pressures, 100 kPa to 400 kPa. From test results, Sandy silt became initially compressive but eventually appeared to provide dilatancy response throughout the entire stress-strain curve The behavior of sandy silt was more difficult to characterize than that of clay and sand due to lower plastic characteristic. Especially, the samples exhibited dilatancy development during shear after failure. The shear behavior and shear strength parameters of sandy silt can be determined as stress-strain behaviors are described by the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. The shear behaviors were observed increasing dilatancy volume change tendency with strain-softening tendency after failure. In this paper, the behavior of dilatancy depends on not only sand content but also fine content with low-cohesion during shear in the samples of sandy silt.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.9-18
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• 2018

The soil parameters important for the design of the soft ground are the compression index ($C_c$), the consolidation settlement and consolidation speed at the field. Compression index is obtained by laboratory consolidation test. In the laboratory consolidation test, sample disturbance always occurs. In order to correct the disturbance phenomena, the method of calculating the compression index proposed by Schmertmann (1955) is generally used. However, recent developments in sampling technology and Korean soil conditions are different from those proposed by Schmertmann. So it needs to be verified. In this study, each consolidation curve's cross void ratio is evaluated by doing consolidation test varying disturbance on high-plastic clay (CH), low-plastic clay (CL) and low-plastic silt (ML). The test results were $0.521e_0$ for low-plastic silt, $0.404e_0$ for low-plastic clay, and $0.458e_0$ for the high-plastic clay. This results were different from those of Schmertmann's suggested value of $0.42e_0$. Therefor we proposed a correction formula using the plastic index according to soil type. However, since the results of this study are limited test results, further studies on various korean soil are needed to suggest the compression index correction method according to the degree of plasticity index of soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.55-64
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• 2013

In this study, a series of the isotropic compression-expansion tests and the Undrained triaxial tests were performed on low-plastic silt of Pocheon stone sludge. Using the tests results the characteristic of the parameters of Lade's single hardening constitutive model were investigated. We also observed that predicted values from the Lade's single hardening constitutive model were well consistent with the observed data. In experimental results the deviator stress showed the work hardening behaviour after reaching its yield stress. Therefore practically useful failure criterion for low-plastic silt were required. The stress-strain behavior predicted by 11 soil parameters are compared with the results obtained 9 parameters by correlation between h and ${\eta}_1$ and constant ${\alpha}$. They are poor matched each other.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.535-543
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• 2019

Building on/with expansive soils with no treatment brings complications. Compacted expansive soils specifically fall short in satisfying the minimum requirements for transport embankment infrastructures, requiring the adoption of hauled virgin mineral aggregates or a sustainable alternative. Use of hauled aggregates comes at a high carbon and economical cost. On average, every 9m high embankment built with quarried/hauled soils cost $12600MJ.m^{-2}$ Embodied Energy (EE). A prospect of using mixed cutting-arising expansive soils with industrial/domestic wastes can reduce the carbon cost and ease the pressure on landfills. The widespread use of recycled materials has been extensively limited due to concerns over their long-term performance, generally low shear strength and stiffness. In this contribution, hydromechanical properties of a waste tyre sand-sized rubber (a mixture of polybutadiene, polyisoprene, elastomers, and styrene-butadiene) and expansive silt is studied, allowing the short- and long-term behaviour of optimum compacted composites to be better established. The inclusion of tyre shred substantially decreased the swelling potential/pressure and modestly lowered the compression index. Silt-Tyre powder replacement lowered the bulk density, allowing construction of lighter reinforced earth structures. The shear strength and stiffness decreased on addition of tyre powder, yet the contribution of matric suction to the shear strength remained constant for tyre shred contents up to 20%. Reinforced soils adopted a ductile post-peak plastic behaviour with enhanced failure strain, offering the opportunity to build more flexible subgrades as recommended for expansive soils. Residual water content and tyre shred content are directly correlated; tyre-reinforced silt showed a greater capacity of water storage (than natural silts) and hence a sustainable solution to waterlogging and surficial flooding particularly in urban settings. Crushed fine tyre shred mixed with expansive silts/sands at 15 to 20 wt% appear to offer the maximum reduction in swelling-shrinking properties at minimum cracking, strength loss and enhanced compressibility expenses.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.133-145
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• 2003

Deep-sea surface sediments were collected using a multiple corer at 20 stations of Clarion-Clipperton fracture zone in the northeast equatorial Pacific to understand latitudinal and longitudinal variations of geotechnical properties. There was a distinct latitudinal variation of geotechnical properties in the study area. The northern sediments showed finer grain size, lower water content and porosity, higher bulk density and specific grain density, lower liquid limits and plastic limits than their southern counterparts. The northern sediments are classified into inorganic clays of low plasticity (fat clays) on plasticity charts and normal to active clay on activity chart, whereas, the southern sediments are classified into fine-grained, highly-plastic, inorganic and biogenic silt or organic clays on plasticity chart and normal to very active clay on activity chart. When shear strength are considered, the northern sediments were found to be in unconsolidated states, while the southern ones to be normal to over-consolidated states. These latitudinal variations in sediment characteristics are likely caused by differences in productivity of surface water that controls sediment compositions, sedimentation rates, and grain solubility.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.17 no.1 s.50
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• pp.125-133
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• 2007

The environmental and geotechnical properties are investigated to the 8th landfill area made of only sewage sludge in Nanji-Do. To do this, the soils are sampled in this area, and leaching tests, heavy metal content tests, and so on are performed to research the environmental properties. As the result of heavy metal content tests, Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd and Cr were leached from the sewage sludge. Because the leaching concentration of Cu is more than the standard value of California state, Cu content have to bring down during the recycling of the sewage sludge. Meanwhile, a series of tests concerning specific gravity, liquid and plastic limits, compaction, permeability and shear strength is performed to research the geotechnical properties. The sewage sludge is consisted of sand, silt and clay, and is classified into non-organic silt or organic clay with 42.3% of plastic index. As the result of compaction test, it is expected that the compaction effect according to variation of water contents is low relatively because the dry unit weight is low and the curve of compaction forms flatness. Also, as the result of direct shear tests, the cohesion is $0.058kg/cm^2$, and the internal friction angle is $14^{\circ}$. Taking everything into consideration, the various problems are happening in case of recycling the sludge like the cover layer of landfill and so on because the compaction is bad, and the shear strength is low. Also, it is expected that the ground water pollution caused by leaching the heavy metal into the sludge. To do recycling the sewage sludge in this site, supplementary and treatment programs should be prepared.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.221-231
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• 2023

Biopolymer stabilization is a sustainable alternative to traditional techniques that cause a lesser negative impact on the environment during production and application. The study aims to minimize the biopolymer dosages by sizing the bio-additives to the nanoscale. This study combines the advantages of bio and nanomaterials in geotechnical engineering applications and attempts to investigate the behaviour of a low viscous biopolymer, nano sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (nCMC), to treat organic soil. Soil is treated with 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75% and 1.00% of nano-bio additive, and its effect on the plastic behaviour, compaction characteristics, strength, hydraulic conductivity (HC) and compressible nature are investigated. The strength increased by 1.68 times after 90 days of curing at a dosage of 0.5% nCMC through the formation of gel threads connecting the soil particles that stiffened the matrix. The viscosity of 1% nCMC increased exponentially, deterring fluid flow through the voids and reduced the HC by 0.85 times after curing for 90 days. Also, beyond the optimum dosage of 0.50%, the nCMC forms a film around the soil particles that inhibits the inter-particle cohesion causing a reduction in strength. Experimental results show that nCMC can effectively substitute conventional additives to stabilize the soil.