• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 2022

In tropical regions, lateritic soil is frequently used in road embankment. However, it is one of the sources of road failure owing to its low strength. Generally, cement and lime are used as stabilizers for lateritic soil, but they are not environmentally friendly. Some studies try to use eggshells, for they are food waste and share the same chemical composition as lime. Previous researchs have shown that eggshell powder could enhance the strength of lateritic soil. This research investigated the effect of particle size of the eggshell powder and the effect of the protein-membrane presence in the eggshell on stabilizing capacity of soil. Through laboratory tests, unconfined compressive strength was examined for various particle sizes. The particle size of eggshell powder ranging between 150 ㎛ and 88 ㎛ was appropriate size that made an excellent stabilizer at 3% concentration. On the other hand, the protein-membrane reduced the stabilizing ability of the eggshell powder when the content of eggshell powder is less than 4% in soil. Numerical analysis of road embankment was performed based on the results obtained in the laboratory tests. It is shown that the eggshell powder has improved the stability of the sub-base of the road embankment.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.41-49
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to fabricate a full scale road embankment using lightweight air foamed soil as a soil material on soft ground and to investigate its material characteristics and behavior in order to promote dredged soil utilization and minimize ground improvement. As a result of the laboratory test of the onsite mixed samples, the total unit weight of the specimens decreased almost linearly until curing 28 days. In particular, the total unit weight after 28 days of curing was reduced to about 81% of the slurry state before curing, which will be useful in the formulation of similar native soil materials in the future. The unconfined compressive strength began to decrease with the 14th day of curing as shown in the previous study. When the cement content is increased, the strength decreases sharply at a small strain change after the occurrence of the maximum compressive strength, and the maximum strength is exhibited in a range of a smaller axial strain than normal range. The settlement at the surface layer of the ground due to the lightweight embankment was about 1 / 2.75 of the soil embankment and was in agreement with the unit weight ratio (1 / 2.7) of the embankment materials. This indicates the cause and effect of the settlement due to the difference in self weight of the embankments. Also, the difference in settlement between soil and lightweight embankment increased with increasing depth. This shows that the difference in the point at which the settlement is terminated is clear. The ground horizontal displacement under the lightweight embankment was about 15~20% smaller than that of the soil embankment and the depth of occurrence was also 4.5~5.0m shallower in the lightweight embankment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.749-758
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• 2010

Embankment Slope (or Fill Slope) is defined as artificial slope formed by the filling of soil or rocks on the original ground. Recently a lot of embankment failures and collapse has occurred due to the increase of torrential rainfall and typhoons. Embankment collapse has lead to a great loss of lives and property therefore there is a need to establish a systematic embankment slope management system that will handle the maintenance and repair of risky embankment slopes. The objective of this study is to establish an "Embankment Slope Management Method" for embankment slopes located along national highways all over Korea. The method for field investigation of embankment slopes was recommended and the system for investment priority determination was also developed. The factors that lead to the collapse of embankment slopes caused by natural calamities were also determined through the initial survey of embankment slopes located along river fronts and mountainous areas.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.497-505
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• 2019

Biocementation based on the microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) process is a novel soil improvement method. Biocement can improve significantly the properties of soils by binding soil particles to increase the shear strength or filling in the pores to reduce the permeability of soil. In this paper, results of triaxial consolidated undrained (CU) tests and constant shear drained (CSD) tests on biocemented Ottawa sand are presented. In the CU tests, the biocemented sand had more dilative behaviour by showing a higher stress-strain curves and faster pore pressure reducing trends as compared with their untreated counterparts. In the CSD tests, the stress ratio q/p' at which biocemented sand became unstable was higher than that for untreated sands, implying that the biocementation will improve the stability of sand to water infiltration or liquefaction.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.102-108
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• 2010

The internal structure of a river embankment must be delineated as part of investigations to evaluate its safety. Geophysical methods can be most effective means for that purpose, if they are used together with geotechnical methods such as the cone penetration test (CPT) and drilling. Since the dyke body and subsoil in general consist of material with a wide range of grain size, the properties and stratification of the soil must be accurately estimated to predict the mechanical stability and water infiltration in the river embankment. The strength and water content of the levee soil are also parameters required for such prediction. These parameters are usually estimated from CPT data, drilled core samples and laboratory tests. In this study we attempt to utilise geophysical data to estimate these parameters more effectively for very long river embankments. S-wave velocity and resistivity of the levee soils obtained with geophysical surveys are used to classify the soils. The classification is based on a physical soil model, called the unconsolidated sand model. Using this model, a soil profile along the river embankment is constructed from S-wave velocity and resistivity profiles. The soil profile thus obtained has been verified by geotechnical logs, which proves its usefulness for investigation of a river embankment.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.245-253
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• 2017

The increasing lack of good quality soils allowing the development of roadway, motorway, or railway networks, as well as large scale industrial facilities, necessitates the use of reinforcement techniques. Their aim is the improvement of the global performance of compressible soils, both in terms of settlement reduction and increase of the load bearing capacity. Among the various available techniques, the improvement of soils by incorporating vertical stiff piles appears to be a particularly appropriate solution, since it is easy to implement and does not require any substitution of significant soft soil volumes. The technique consists in driving a group of regularly spaced piles through a soft soil layer down to an underlying competent substratum. The surface load being thus transferred to this substratum by means of those reinforcing piles, which illustrates the case of a piled embankment. The differential settlements at the base of the embankment between the soft soil and the stiff piles lead to an "arching effect" in the embankment due to shearing mechanisms. This effect, which can be accentuated by the use of large pile caps, allows partial load transfer onto the pile, as well as surface settlement reduction, thus ensuring that the surface structure works properly. A technique for producing rigid piles has been developed to achieve in a single operation a rigid circular pile associated with a cone shaped head reversed on the place of a rigid circular pile. This technique has been used with success in a pile-supported road near Bourgoin-Jallieu (France). In this article, a numerical study based on this real case is proposed to highlight the functioning mode of this new technique in the case of industrial slabs.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.31-43
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• 2015

A numerical analysis on the effect of increasing tensile stiffness of the geosynthetics on the soil displacement and pile efficiency was conducted. Parametric studies by changing the stiffness of soft soil, internal friction and dilatancy angles of the embankment material, and flexual stiffness of the composite layer including the geosynthetics were carried out. In general, increasing stiffness of the geosynthetics improves the pile efficiency, whereas the amount of its improvement depends on the condition of parameters. In case of the sufficiently low stiffness of the soft soil or high flexual stiffness of the composite layer including the geosynthetics, a noticeable increase in the pile efficiency can be observed. When the stiffness of the soft soil is very low, the increase in the stiffness of the geosynthetics can significantly reduce the vertical displacement in the piled embankment. When the flexual stiffness of the composite layer is sufficiently high, increasing stiffness of the geosynthetics can greatly improve the pile efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.1032-1039
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• 2010

Based on the proven feasibility of bottom ash and tire shred-soil mixtures as lightweight fill materials, tire shred-bottom ash mixtures were suggested as a new lightweight fill material to replace the conventional construction material with bottom ash. Therefore, we carried out the laboratory test, field compaction test and performance test of large scale embankment in order to evaluate their suitability for the use of lightweight fill materials in the before studies. We could verified that the ash, tire-shred and the mixture are able to be the useful materials as light fill materials. In this study, we built real scale embankment with RBA(Reclamated Bottom Ash), TRBA(Tire shred-Reclamated Bottom Ash mixture), WS(Weathered Soil), BA(Bottom Ash screened by 5mm sieve) for monitoring the behavior such as settlement, lateral displacement and water content change. Furthermore, we are examining the ground water quality in the surrounding area of the test embankment.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.75-84
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• 2013

The seepage quantity analysis of reservoir embankment is very important for assessment of embankment safety. However, the conventional analysis does not consider uncertainty of soil properties. Permeability is known that the coefficient of variation is larger than other soil properties and seepage quantity is highly dependent on the permeability of embankment. Therefore, probabilistic analysis should be carried out for seepage analysis. To designers, however, the probabilistic analysis is not an easy task. In this paper, the method that can be performed probabilistic analysis easily and efficiently through the numerical analysis based commercial program is proposed. Stochastic response surface method is used for approximate the limit state function and when estimating the coefficients, the moving least squares method is applied in order to reduce local error. The probabilistic analysis is performed by LHC-MCS through the response surface. This method was applied to two type (homogeneous, core zone) earth dams and permeability of embankment body and core are considered as random variables. As a result, seepage quantity was predicted effectively by response surface and probabilistic analysis could be successfully implemented.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.79-90
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• 2022

Soybean-urease induced carbonate precipitation (EICP), as an alternative to microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), was employed for soil improvement. Meanwhile, soluble calcium produced from industrial waste carbide slag powder (CSP) via the acid dissolution method was used for the EICP process. The ratio of CSP to the acetic acid solution was optimized to obtain a desirable calcium concentration with an appropriate pH. The calcium solution was then used for the sand columns test, and the engineering properties of the EICP-treated sand, including unconfined compressive strength, permeability, and calcium carbonate content, were evaluated. Results showed that the properties of the biocemented sand using the CSP derived calcium solution were comparable to those using the reagent grade CaCl₂. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses revealed that spherical vaterite crystals were mainly formed when the CSP-derived calcium solution was used. In contrast, spherical calcite crystals were primarily formed as the reagent grade CaCl₂ was used. This study highlighted that it was effective and sustainable to use soluble calcium produced from CSP for the EICP process.