• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.159-168
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• 1997

In order to investigate the effect of parameters such as orientation and surface roughness of a reinforcing material as well as the water content of the clay matrix on the stress-strain and failure behavior of reinforced clay, uniaxial compression tests were performed on clay samples reinforced with a steel inclusion Test results showed that the increase or decrease in strength of reinforced clay samples was found to depend on the orientation of a steel inclusion as well as water content of clay samples. The possible weakening mechanism induced by reinforcement in clay samples was related to the development of cracks along the tips of interface between steel inclusion and clay matrix. A theoretical interpretation of failure behavior of reinforced clay was made by using fracture mechanics theory, and the experimental results were compared with the theoretical predictions. The predicted crack propagation direction obtained from fracture criteria for a material containing a closed crack with friction agreed reasonably well with the measured values obtained from tests.

• 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.5 no.4
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• pp.331-342
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• 2013

The major factors that control the performance of reinforced soil structures is the interaction between the soil and the reinforcement. Thus it is necessary to obtain the accurate bond parameters to be used in the design of these structures. To evaluate the behavior of flyash + clay soil reinforced with a woven geotextile, 36 Unconsolidated-Undrained (UU) and 12 reinforced Consolidated-Undrainrained (CU) triaxial compression tests were conducted. The moisture content of soil during remolding, confining pressures and arrangement of geotextile layers were all varied so that the behavior of the sample could be examined. The stress strain patterns, drainage, modulus of deformation, effect of confinement pressures, effects of moisture content have been evaluated. The impact of moisture content in flyash + clay backfills on critical shear parameters was also studied to recommend placement moisture for compaction to MDD. The results indicate that geotextile reinforced flyash + clay backfill might be a viable alternative in reinforced soil structures if good-quality granular backfill material is not readily available.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-27
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• 2022

Extensive laboratory tests were conducted to investigate the effect of load amplitude, geogrid position, and number of geogrid layers, thickness of ballast layer and clay stiffness on behavior of reinforced ballast layer and induced strains in geogrid. A half full-scale railway was constructed for carrying out the tests, the model consists of two rails 800 mm in length with three wooden sleepers (900 mm × 10 mm × 10 mm). The ballast was overlying 500 mm thickness clay in two states, soft and stiff state. Laboratory tests were conducted to investigate the response of the ballast and the clay layers where the ballast was reinforced by a geogrid. Settlement in ballast and clay, soil pressure and pore water pressure induced in the clay were measured in reinforced and unreinforced ballast cases. It was concluded that the effect of frequency on the settlement ratio is almost constant after 500 cycles. This is due to that the total settlement after 500 cycles, almost reached its peak value, which means that the ballast particles become very close to each other, so the frequency is less effective for high contact particles forces. The average maximum vertical stress and pore water pressure increased with frequency.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.263-281
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• 2013

Geotextiles and geogrids have been in use for several decades in variety of geo-structure applications including foundation of embankments, retaining walls, pavements. Geocells is one such variant in geosynthetic reinforcement of recent years, which provides a three dimensional confinement to the infill material. Although extensive research has been carried on geocell reinforced sand, clay and layered soil subgrades, limited research has been reported on the aggregates/ballast reinforced with geocells. This paper presents the behavior of a railway sleeper subjected to monotonic loading on geocell reinforced aggregates, of size ranging from 20 to 75 mm, overlying soft clay subgrades. Series of tests were conducted in a steel test tank of dimensions $700mm{\times}300mm{\times}700mm$. In addition to the laboratory model tests, numerical simulations were performed using a finite difference code to predict the behavior of geocell reinforced ballast. The results from numerical simulations were compared with the experimental data. The numerical and experimental results manifested the importance that the geocell reinforcement has a significant effect on the ballast behaviour. The results depicted that the stiffness of underlying soft clay subgrade has a significant influence on the behavior of the geocell-aggregate composite material in redistributing the loading system.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.405-422
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• 2016

The paper deals with the results of the laboratory cyclic plate load tests performed on the reinforced soft clay beds. The performances of the clay bed reinforced with geocells and geocells with additional basal geogrid cases are compared with the performance of the unreinforced clay beds. From the cyclic plate load test results, the coefficient of elastic uniform compression ($C_u$) was calculated for the different cases. The $C_u$ value was found to increase in the presence of geocell reinforcement. The maximum increase in the $C_u$ value was observed in the case of the clay bed reinforced with the combination of geocell and geogrid. In addition, 3 times increase in the strain modulus, 10 times increase in the bearing capacity, 8 times increase in the stiffness and 90% reduction in the settlement was observed in the presence of the geocell and geogrid. Based on the laboratory test results, a hypothetical case of a prototype foundation subjected to cyclic load was analyzed. The results revealed that the natural frequency of the foundation-soil system increases by 4 times and the amplitude of the vibration reduces by 92% in the presence of the geocells and the geogrids.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.67-82
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• 1994

In this study, a reinforced clay model based on the limit equilibrium of forces under direct shear was proposed to predict shear strength increase in clays induced by the steel inclusion. The model accounted for the effects of orientation of inclusion, length, bonding stress between clay and indclusion and passive soil resistance 1 induced by the inclusion movement, on the behavior of reinforced clays. In order to compare with the theoretical predictions, direct shear tests were performed using a direct shear apparatus formed of an open shear box. Also pull-out tests were conducted to determine the bonding stress between the inclusion and clay. From the experimental results, the increase or decrease in shear strength of reinforced clay samples was found to depend on the orientation of inclusionas well as water content of clay samples. From the comparison of theoretical predictions and experimental results, it was found that the theore tical model predicted reasonably well the influence of orientation of the inclusion as well as passive soil resistance induced by the inclusion movement on the mechanical behavior of reinforced clays.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.113-121
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• 2013

Recently, it has been studied for the application of nano-materials in the concrete. Applied a small amount of nano-materials can achieve the goal of high strength, high performance and high durability. The small addition of nano clay improves strength, thermal stability, and durability of concrete because of the excellent dispersion. The present study has investigated the effectiveness, when varying with the contents of nano clay, influencing the pull-out behavior of macro synthetic fibers in nano materials cement mortar. Pullout tests conducted in accordance with the Japan Concrete Institute (JCI) SF-8 standard for fiber-reinforced concrete test methods were used to evaluate the pullout performance of the different nano clay. Nano clay was added to the 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 % of cement weight. The experimental results demonstrated that the addition of nano clay led to improve the pull-out properties as of the load-displacement curve in the precracked and debonded zone. Also, the compressive strength, flexural strength and pullout performance and of Mix No. 1 and No. 2 increased up to the point when nano clay used increased by 2 and 3 % contents, respectively, but decreased when the exceeded 3 and 4 %, respectively. It was proved by verifying increase of the scratching phenomenon in macro synthetic fiber surface through the microstructure analysis on the surface of macro synthetic fiber.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.305-318
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• 2020

Stone columns are widely used to treat soft clay ground. Optimizing the design of stone columns based on cost-effectiveness is always an attractive subject in the practice of ground treatment. In this paper, the design of stone columns is optimized using the concept of robust geotechnical design. Standard deviation of failure probability, which is a system response of concern of the stone column-reinforced foundation, is used as a measure of the design robustness due to the uncertainty in the coefficient of variation (COV) of the noise factors in practice. The failure probability of a stone column-reinforced foundation can be readily determined using Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) based on the settlements of the stone column-reinforced foundation, which are evaluated by a deterministic method. A framework based on the concept of robust geotechnical design is proposed for determining the most preferred design of stone columns considering multiple objectives including safety, cost and design robustness. This framework is illustrated with an example, a stone column-reinforced foundation under embankment loading. Based on the outcome of this study, the most preferred design of stone columns is obtained.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.507-508
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• 2006

It is well-known that the mechanical properties of MMT (montmorillonite) nanocomposites are better than those of conventional composites. One of problems in fabricating MMT nanocomposites is a dispersion of nanoparticles in the composites. In this study, tensile tests were performed using universal testing machine to determine the effect of clay reinforced on the MMT/epoxy nanocomposites. It was found that the elastic modulus of nanocomposites was higher than that of pure epoxy irrespective of surface modification. Because MMT clay hod Strain of nanocomposite as a result of reinforced effect