• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.146-152
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• 2000

To estimate the behavior of reinforced and unreinforced embankment constructed on a impermeable foundation ground, a laboratory model test was performed for two types of soils and water level increasing velocity of a flood period. The experiment models were constructed with slopes of water level is 1.25cm/min, 2.5cm/min each. From model test results, as the slope of reinforced and unreinforced embankment was the slower, the more seepage line rised. In the unreinforced embankment, the rising velocity of water level was the faster, the larger the embankment failure was. And the reinforced embankment with geotextile was the more safe than the unreinforced embankment for seepage force.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.15-30
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• 2020

The probabilistic bearing capacity of a strip footing placed on the edge of a purely cohesive reinforced soil slope is computed by combining lower bound finite element limit analysis technique with random field method and Monte Carlo simulation technique. To simulate actual field condition, anisotropic random field model of undrained soil shear strength is generated by using the Cholesky-Decomposition method. With the inclusion of a single layer of reinforcement, dimensionless bearing capacity factor, N always increases in both deterministic and probabilistic analysis. As the coefficient of variation of the undrained soil shear strength increases, the mean N value in both unreinforced and reinforced slopes reduces for particular values of correlation length in horizontal and vertical directions. For smaller correlation lengths, the mean N value of unreinforced and reinforced slopes is always lower than the deterministic solutions. However, with the increment in the correlation lengths, this difference reduces and at a higher correlation length, both the deterministic and probabilistic mean values become almost equal. Providing reinforcement under footing subjected to eccentric load is found to be an efficient solution. However, both the deterministic and probabilistic bearing capacity for unreinforced and reinforced slopes reduces with the consideration of loading eccentricity.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.51-58
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• 2001

The primary objective of this paper was to study the seepage and the failure behavior of unreinforced and reinforced embankment, respectively. Experimental study was conducted to examine the infiltration characteristics. The embankment infiltration tests were conducted with water level condition(h=15cm, 25cm, 35cm), slope inclination(1:1.5, 1:2.0), and the rising velocity(1.25cm/min, 2.5cm/min), respectively. From the model test results, as the slope inclination is decreased, the rising velocity of seepage line increased with both reinforced and unreinforced embankment. With the unreinforced embankment, the rising velocity of water level was faster and the failure circle is lager than those of reinforced ones. And the reinforced embankment with geotextile was safer against seepage force than that of the unreinforced embankment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.257-264
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• 2001

This study presents the slope stability analysis results for the model slope test. The model slope was made of the soil reinforced by FPF(Fibrillated Polyprophylene Fiber). The shear strength properties of the soil reinforced by FPF fibers were evaluated through the direct shear tests. The model slope 1:1 and 1:1.5 were made and the load tests were performed. Back analysis using limit equilibrium method was carried out to evaluate the shear strength increase on the FPF reinforced slope. The factor of safety of the FPF reinforce slope increased about 23% over unreinforced slope.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.623-636
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• 2023

This study utilized small-scale physical model tests to investigate the impact of different types of geosynthetics, including geocell, planar geotextile, and wraparound geotextile, on the behaviour of strip footings placed on 0.8 m thick soil fills and backfills with a slope angle of 70°. Bearing capacity and settlement of the footing and failure mechanisms are discussed and evaluated. The results revealed that the bearing capacity of footings situated on both unreinforced and reinforced slopes increased with a greater embedment depth of the footing. For settlement ratios below 4%, the geocell reinforcement exhibited significantly higher stiffness, carrying greater loads and experiencing less settlement compared to the planar and wraparound geotextile reinforcements. However, the performance of geocell reinforcement was influenced by the number and length of the geocell layers. Increasing the geocell back length ratio from 0.44 to 0.84 significantly improved the bearing capacity of the footing located at the crest of the reinforced slope. Adequate reinforcement length, particularly for geocell, enhanced the bearing pressure of the footing and increased the stiffness of the slope, resulting in reduced deflections. Increasing the length of reinforcement also led to improved performance of the footing located on wraparound geotextile reinforced slopes. In all reinforcement cases, reducing the vertical spacing between reinforcement layers from 100 mm to 75 mm allowed the slope to withstand much greater loads.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.95-105
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• 2005

Generally, a modified version of limit equilibrium method can be used to evaluate a slope stability of the geosynthetic reinforced soil slopes. In most cases, resisting effects of geosynthetic reinforcement are dealt with considering an increased shear strength on the potential slip surface. However, it is not clear that the methods satisfy all three equilibrium equations. As we know, the pattern of normal stress distribution along the slip surface is the key factor in calculating the safety factor of slopes. In this study, the new slope stability analysis method in which not only reinforcing effects of geosynthetics can be considered but also all three equilibrium equations can be satisfied was proposed with assuming the normal stress distribution along the slip surface as quadratic curve with horizontal $\chi-coordinate$. A number of illustrative examples, including published slope stability analysis examples for the reinforced and unreinforced soil slopes, loading test of large scale reinforced earth wall and centrifuge model tests on the geotextile reinforced soil slopes, were analyzed. As a result, it is shown that the newly suggested method yields a relatively accurate factor of safety for the reinforced and unreinforced soil slopes.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 2014

In this study, numerical analyses and model tests were conducted to figure out the behavior of a slope reinforced by upward drainable soil nails during rainfall. The model tests were carried out on both reinforced and unreinforced slopes. To verify the results of the tests, seepage analyses were performed and compared with the test results using a commercial program, SEEP/W. The results showed that the numerical analyses have in overall a good agreement with the experiments in the variations of ground water level and pore water pressure even though there is some time delay for the experiment before the changes in the ground water level and pore water pressure after rainfall are observed, while the numerical analyses not.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.345-354
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• 2018

Currently, layered geogrid method (LGM) is the commonly practiced technique for reinforcement of slopes. In this paper the geogrid-box method (GBM) is introduced as a new approach for reinforcement of rock-soil slopes. To achieve the objectives of this study, a laboratory setup was designed and the slopes without reinforcements and reinforced with LGM and GBM were tested under the loading of a circular footing. The effect of vertical spacing between geogrid layers and box thickness on normalized bearing capacity and failure mechanism of slopes was investigated. A series of 3D finite element analysis were also performed using ABAQUS software to supplement the results of the model tests. The results indicated that the load-settlement behavior and the ultimate bearing capacity of footing can be significantly improved by the inclusion of reinforcing geogrid in the soil. It was found that for the slopes reinforced with GBM, the displacement contours are widely distributed in the rock-soil mass underneath the footing in greater width and depth than that in the reinforced slope with LGM, which in turn results in higher bearing capacity. It was also established that by reducing the thickness of geogrid-boxes, the distribution and depth of displacement contours increases and a longer failure surface is developed, which suggests the enhanced bearing capacity of the slope. Based on the studied designs, the ultimate bearing capacity of the GBM-reinforced slope was found to be 11.16% higher than that of the slope reinforced with LGM. The results also indicated that, reinforcement of rock-soil slopes using GBM causes an improvement in the ultimate bearing capacity as high as 24.8 times more than that of the unreinforced slope.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.73-78
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• 2000

The reinforced soil has been widely used for constructing retaining walls and embankment with steep slope. However, the benefits of soil reinforcing are often-restricted by a lack of good quality backfill material. In this study, plane strain compression tests were carried out to study the effects of preloading on the behavior of geosynthetic-reinforced saturated clay. For the unreinforced and reinforced soil, drained and undrained shearing tests were peformed after anisotropic consolidation in a constant strain rate. A preoading test was carried out by preloading, creep, unloading, aging and undrained shearing after anisotropic consolidation(K=0.3, σ'₃=50 kPa). It was observed that a reinforced clay, Kanto loam, can have a great initial secant modulus in undraind condition by well compaction and over consolidation. The results shown that the increasing of drained strength should be used to apply a large preloading in the case of reinforced clay.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.315-328
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• 2019

This paper presents an investigation on bearing capacity, load-settlement behavior and safety factor of rock-soil slopes reinforced using geogrid-box method (GBM). To this end, small-scale laboratory studies were carried out to study the load-settlement response of a circular footing resting on unreinforced and reinforced rock-soil slopes. Several parameters including unit weight of rock-soil materials (loose- and dense-packing modes), slope height, location of footing relative to the slope crest, and geogrid tensile strength were studied. A series of finite element analysis were conducted using ABAQUS software to predict the bearing capacity behavior of slopes. Limit equilibrium and finite element analysis were also performed using commercially available software SLIDE and ABAQUS, respectively to calculate the safety factor. It was found that stabilization of rock-soil slopes using GBM significantly improves the bearing capacity and settlement behavior of slopes. It was established that, the displacement contours in the dense-packing mode distribute in a broader and deeper area as compared with the loose-packing mode, which results in higher ultimate bearing load. Moreover, it was found that in the loose-packing mode an increase in the vertical pressure load is accompanied with an increase in the soil settlement, while in the dense-packing mode the load-settlement curves show a pronounced peak. Comparison of bearing capacity ratios for the dense- and loose-packing modes demonstrated that the maximum benefit of GBM is achieved for rock-soil slopes in loose-packing mode. It was also found that by increasing the slope height, both the initial stiffness and the bearing load decreases. The results indicated a significant increase in the ultimate bearing load as the distance of the footing to the slope crest increases. For all the cases, a good agreement between the laboratory and numerical results was observed.