• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.703-714
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• 2010

This paper proposes an approach for staged finite element modeling with coupled seepage and stress analysis. The stage modeling is based on the predefined inter-relationship between the base model and the unit stage models. A unit stage constitutes a complete finite element model, of which the geometries and attributes are subject to changes from stage to stage. The seepage analysis precedes the mechanical stress analysis at every stage. Division of the wet and dry zone and the pore pressures are evaluated from the seepage analysis and used in determining input data for the stress analysis. The results of the stress analysis may also be associated with the pore water pressures. For consolidation analysis, the pore pressure and the displacement variables are mixed in a coupled matrix equation. The time marching solution produces the dissipation of excess pore pressure and variation of stresses with passage of time. For undrained analysis, the excess pore pressures are computed from the stress increment due to loading applied in the unit stage and are used in revising the hydraulic head. The solution results of a unit stage are inherited and accumulated to the subsequent stages through the relationship of the base model and the individual unit stages. Implementation of the proposed approach is outlined on the basis of the core procedures, and numerical examples are presented for demonstration of its application.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.353-370
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• 2017

This paper presents a case study and numerical investigation to study the hydro-mechanical response of a shallow landslide in unsaturated slopes subjected to rainfall infiltration using a coupled model. The coupled model was interpreted in details by expressing the balance equations for soil mixture and the coupled constitutive equations. The coupled model was verified against experimental data from the shearing-infiltration triaxial tests. A real case of shallow landslide occurred on Mt. Umyeonsan, Seoul, Korea was employed to explore the influence of rainfall infiltration on the slope stability during heavy rainfall. Numerical results showed that the coupled model accurately predicted the poromechanical behavior of a rainfall-induced landslide by simultaneously linking seepage and stress-strain problems. It was also found that the coupled model properly described progress failure of a slope in a highly transient condition. Through the comparisons between the coupled and uncoupled models, the coupled model provided more realistic analysis results under rainfall. Consequently, the coupled model was found to be feasible for the stability and seepage analysis of practical engineering problems.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.11-23
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• 2015

In this study the laboratory test for hydraulic conductivity and the seepage analysis with finite element method on measurement section of sea dike embankment were performed for the purpose of estimating the relative density of embankment from the measured pore water pressures, and both results of the test and the analysis were coupled with the method of estimating seepage blocking state with the hydraulic head loss rate in sea dike embankment. The relationship of void ratio vs hydraulic head loss rate was obtained by setting hydraulic conductivity as common ordinate on the relationships between the void ratio and the hydraulic conductivity and between the hydraulic conductivity and the hydraulic head loss rate. The void ratio on the segment between measuring points was calculated from the coupled relationship of the void ratio vs the hydraulic conductivity. The allowable upper and lower limits of hydraulic head loss rate and those of void ratio on the safety were generated from the coupled relationship between the laboratory compaction test and the sedimentation test. Current hydraulic head loss rate and void ratio were evaluated in the allowable range between upper and lower limits.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.345-351
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• 2017

Acid drainage in civil engineering structures such as tunnels may lead to the deposition of precipitates that clog drainage channels and pipework. In evaluating acid drainage, the Fe content of water and precipitates, indicated by reddish brown coloration of rock surfaces, rivers, and soils, may be an important factor. In this study, acid drainage was evaluated by analyzing the Fe content of reddish brown seepage water that occurred in part of a tunnel. Geological investigations around the tunnel revealed a hydrothermal alteration zone cutting the bedrock, and cropping out in the upper parts of the tunnel. Analysis of drillcore revealed many fracture zones and veins. Inductively coupled plasma spectrophotometric analyses of water, precipitates, and soil samples, collected in the seepage water zone and around the tunnel, were conducted to evaluate acid drainage. The Fe content of seepage water in the tunnel was 0.030-0.333 mg/kg, which is 2-22 times higher than in local groundwater. The Fe content of precipitates in the tunnel was 165,403-301,051 mg/kg, similar to the 206,167-422,964 mg/kg content of drillcore from the hydrothermal alteration zone located above the tunnel. It is concluded that the seepage water is derived from Fe-containing acid drainage flowing in perforated tunnel drainpipes along the fracture zones and veins around the hydrothermal alteration zone.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.273-280
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• 2003

Tunneling in difficult geological conditions is often inevitable especially in urban areas. Ground improvement and reinforcement techniques are often required to guarantee safe tunnel excavations and/or to prevent damage to adjacent structures. The steel pipe-reinforced multi-step grouting method has been recently applied to tunnel sites in Korea as an auxiliary technique. In this study, the face stability with steel pipe-reinforced multi-step grouting was evaluated by simultaneously considering two factors: one is the effective stress acting on the tunnel face calculated by limit theorem and limit equilibrium method; the other is the seepage force obtained by means of numerical analysis. The study revealed that the influence of the steel pipe-reinforced multi-step grouting on the support pressure in dry condition is not significant while there is relatively a large amount of reduction in seepage forces by adopting the technique in saturated condition. The effect of the anisotropy of permeability on the seepage force acting on the tunnel face was also estimated by conducting the coupled analysis. It was found that a higher horizontal permeability compared with the vertical one causes reduction in the seepage force acting on the tunnel face.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.35-43
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• 2010

Partially saturated permeability should be defined by the function of suction (or degree of saturation) and porosity. However, commercial software and most researchers' model often describe as the function of suction. The stability of a soil slope can be affected by both hydraulic and shear strength properties of partially saturated soils. For both studies, we generally use an uncoupled seepage analysis program Seep/W(Geo-Slope, 2007) and a series stress-deformation analysis program Sigma/W, or slope stability analysis program Slope/W. Seep/W is performed for simulations of partially saturated flow problems in non-deformable soil media. However, under real situations, the water flow processes in a deformable soil are influenced by soil skeleton movement and the pore water pressure changed due to seepage will lead to changes in stresses and to deformation of a soil. Many researchers are currently developing their models for solving coupled hydro-mechanical problems to simulate slope stability during a rainstorm. For a proper implementation in the field, the developed model should be still needed in order to achieve appropriate accuracy of the solution for coupled hydro-mechanical problems in soil slope stability. Thus, the paper presents the comparison of slope stability between uncoupled and coupled analyses of seepage and stress deformation problems.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.862-870
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• 2010

This thesis has been researched on optimized design method for the total cross section of embankment considering the fact that the size of embankment cross section is directly related with economic efficiency when dam designing. In general, embankment cross section of fill dam is either determined by cohesion and angle of internal friction, a strength parameter of embankment materials or by permeability of embankment. Therefore the size of embankment cross section depending on strength parameter of embankment materials was determined by using MIDAS-GTS program through stress-seepage coupled analysis at the time of fill dam design. As a result, determination of embankment cross section was more affected by the size of central core and permeability rather than by slope stability by shear strength and it was revealed that in case of embankment height being over 20m, stability against infiltration and slope action could be secured only when embankment slope is at least over 1:2.5. In addition, it was also revealed that in case of making the size of central core exceeding specification standard, total cross section of embankment could be reduced considerably and at the time of embankment design, adequate size and appropriateness of embankment cross section could be determined with referring the table suggested by this study.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.187-195
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• 2005

When a tunnel is excavated below groundwater table, the groundwater flow occurs towards the tunnel resulting in the seepage pressure. In this paper, the effect of groundwater flows on the behavior of shotcrete lining installed between ground-liner interfaces was studied considering permeability ratio between the ground and the shotcrete into account. Three-dimensional coupled finite element analysis was performed for this assessment. Seepage forces will seriously affect the shotcrete behavior since arching phenomena do not occur in seepage forces. A parametric study was conducted on the various tunnelling situations including interfacial properties between ground and shotcrete lining, the shape of tunnel cross-section and the thickness of liner, etc. Moreover, the convergence-confinement method (CCM) of a NATM tunnel considering seepage forces was proposed. The result showed that the more water tight is the shotcrete, the smaller is the convergence and the larger is the internal pressure. Therefore, the watertight fiber-reinforced shotcrete is found to be even more advantageous when used in under water tunnel.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.121-131
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• 2003

Tunneling in difficult geological conditions is often inevitable especially in urban areas. Ground improvement and reinforcement techniques are often required to guarantee safe tunnel excavations and/or to prevent damage to adjacent structures. The steel pipe-reinforced multistep grouting method has been recently applied to tunnel sites in Korea as an auxiliary technique. In this study, the face stability with steel pipe-reinforced multistep grouting was evaluated emphasizing the effect of seepage forces. The study revealed that the influence of the steel pipe-reinforced multistep grouting on the support pressure in dry condition is not significant while there is relatively a large amount of reduction in seepage forces by adopting the technique in saturated condition. The effect of the anisotropy of permeability on the seepage force acting on the tunnel face was also estimated by conducting the coupled analysis. It was found that a higher horizontal permeability compared with the vertical one causes reduction in the seepage farce acting on the tunnel face.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.34-34
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• 2012

Heavy storms rainfall has caused many landslides and slope failures especially in the mountainous area of the world. Landslides and slope failures are common geologic hazards and posed serious threats and globally cause billions in monetary losses and thousands of casualies each year so that studies on slope stability and its failure mechanism under rainfall are being increasing attention of these days. Rainfall-induced slope failures are generally caused by the rise in ground water level, and increase in pore water pressures and seepage forces during periods of intense rainfall. The effective stress in the soil will be decreased due to the increased pore pressure, which thus reduces the soil shear strength, eventually resulting in slope failure. During the rainfall, a wetting front goes downward into the slope, resulting in a gradual increase of the water content and a decrease of the negative pore-water pressure. This negative pore-water pressure is referred to as matric suction when referenced to the pore air pressure that contributes to the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. Therefore, the importance is the study of saturated unsaturated soil behaviors in evaluation of slope stability under heavy rainfall condition. In an actual field, a series of failures may occur in a slope due to a rainfall event. So, this study attempts to develop a numerical model to investigate this failure mechanism. A two-dimensional seepage flow model coupled with a one-dimensional surface flow and erosion/deposition model is used for seepage analysis. It is necessary to identify either there is surface runoff produced or not in a soil slope during a rainfall event, while analyzing the seepage and stability of such slopes. Runoff produced by rainfall may result erosion/deposition process on the surface of the slope. The depth of runoff has vital role in the seepage process within the soil domain so that surface flow and erosion/deposition model computes the surface water head of the runoff produced by the rainfall, and erosion/deposition on the surface of the model slope. Pore water pressure and moisture content data obtained by the seepage flow model are then used to analyze the stability of the slope. Spencer method of slope stability analysis is incorporated into dynamic programming to locate the critical slip surface of a general slope.