• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.207-218
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• 2023

Real-time monitoring of the behavior of reinforced soil retaining wall (RSW) is required for safety checks. In this study, a targetless displacement measurement technology (TDMT) consisting of an image registration module and a displacement calculation module was proposed to monitor the behavior of RSW, in which facing displacement and settlement typically occur. Laboratory and field experiments were conducted to compare the measuring performance of natural target (NT) with the performance of artificial target (AT). Feature count- and location-based performance metrics and displacement calculation performance were analyzed to determine their correlations. The results of laboratory and field experiments showed that the feature location-based performance metric was more relevant to the displacement calculation performance than the feature count-based performance metric. The mean relative errors of the TDMT were less than 1.69 % and 5.50 % for the laboratory and field experiments, respectively. The proposed TDMT can accurately monitor the behavior of RSW for real-time safety checks.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.99-115
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• 2014

Uncertainties in design variables and design equations have a significant impact on the safety of geotechnical structures like retaining walls and slopes. This paper presents a possible framework for obtaining the partial safety factors based on reliability approach for different random variables affecting the stability of a reinforced concrete cantilever retaining wall and a slope under static loading conditions. Reliability analysis is carried out by Mean First Order Second Moment Method, Point Estimate Method, Monte Carlo Simulation and Response Surface Methodology. A target reliability index ${\beta}$ = 3 is set and partial safety factors for each random variable are calculated based on different coefficient of variations of the random variables. The study shows that although deterministic analysis reveals a safety factor greater than 1.5 which is considered to be safe in conventional approach, reliability analysis indicates quite high failure probability due to variation of soil properties. The results also reveal that a higher factor of safety is required for internal friction angle ${\varphi}$, while almost negligible values of safety factors are required for soil unit weight ${\gamma}$ in case of cantilever retaining wall and soil unit weight ${\gamma}$ and cohesion c in case of slope. Importance of partial safety factors is shown by analyzing two simple geotechnical structures. However, it can be applied for any complex system to achieve economization.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.61-76
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• 1998

Various kinds of reinforced soil methods have been developed by many researchers or companies for their economic merits mainly. These methods have generally used sandy soils which have high permeability as embanking or backfill material. That is because, if poor embanking materials, especially like a clayey soil which has very low permeability, are used in a reinforced soil embanking, and if excessive pore water pressure is produced by external factors, the friction resistance between reinforcing members and Boils decrease, as a result possible damage or collapse of the body of a reinforced embankment. In fact, clayey Boils can also be used as a embanking materials with reinforcement which has high permeable capacity, and are expected to be able to dissipate the excess pore water pressure effectively. In this study reinforcing effects have been examined through a serries of direct shear tests in which clayey soils are reinforced with nonwoven geotextiles of which permeability is very high and tensile strength is relatively weaker than geogrids which are usually used in reinforced soil wall. Even though such nonwoven geotextile are used as reinforcement of high saturated clayey soils. the test results show the possibility that nonwoven geoteztiles could be used as a reinforcement for reinforced soil walls effectively.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.47-56
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• 2005

Recently, geosynthetic reinforced earth walls are gradually replacing conventional concrete retaining walls for reasons of economy, expediency of construction, and aesthetics. A number of reinforced soil walls having more than 10m heights have been constructed to make more effective development in the country. However, mistakes in design and construction of reinforced earth walls have resulted in many troubles such as failure of reinforced earth walls, horizontal deformationor breakdown of facings, and so forth during or after construction. In this paper, a case study on global sliding failure of a geogrid-reinforced tiered wall is carried out to investigate the causes of the failure and suggest the proper countermeasures. From the subsurface investigation and field instrumentation, It is found that the cause of the global sliding failure was occurred by decreasing of bearing capacity of foundation ground induced by infiltration of rainwater.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.37-47
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• 2011

This paper describes the stability evaluation of reinforced earth wall with steel framed-facing based on field test. The reinforced earth wall with steel framed-facing is composed of wall facing, reinforcement and backfill soil. The wall facing is assembled by steel frames and the aggregates are filled in that. The reinforcement is steel strip type based on bearing resistance. Field test is conducted to evaluate for two separate sections and the measurement is conducted according to construction elapsed time of structure for earth pressure, horizontal displacement of wall facing and reinforcement strain. The evaluation results show that the measured earth pressure is less than theoretical earth pressure due to dispersion effect of earth pressure by the applied reinforcement. Also, the horizontal displacement of wall facing satisfied a empirical criteria and the measured strain of reinforcement had nearly no effect on stability of structure. Therefore, the reinforced earth wall with steel framed-facing has a structural stability and it can be commonly used in field.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.113-120
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• 2007

For the cases of constructing reinforced earth and gabion walls on the soft ground, an appropriate replacement area of soft ground required to maintain the stability of walls was investigated by FEM analyses. Incremental analyses were performed in FEM, in which construction sequences including consolidation of soft soil layer were simulated. As a first step to suggest the appropriate replacement area, a series of analyses for cases varying the replacement depth were conducted to examine the behaviors of wall and adjacent ground according to the construction sequence. The analysis results were, then, evaluated with the proper limiting values of displacements of wall, settlements and shear strains of ground to guarantee the stability of walls, which were specified based on the literature review. Consequently, the typical construction drawings could be suggested, in which appropriate replacement areas for varying wall heights for the ground condition investigated in this study were represented in terms of the ratio of replacement depth to the height of wall.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2005

The use of geogrid for SRW systems and bridge abutment has increased rapidly over the past 10 years in Korea. The concept of segmental retaining walls and reinforced soil is very old and for example The Ziggurats of Babylonia(i.e. Tower of Babel) were built some 2,500 to 3,000 years ago using soil reinforcing methods very similar to those described in current design. Modern SRW(Semental Retaining Wall) units were introduced in 1960's as concrete crib retaining wall systems. In this paper, the friction properties between segmental concrete units and geogrid are investigated by performing various tests.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.451-457
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• 2000

A series of consolidated undrained triaxial tests for compacted short fiber reinforced clay were performed to increase the field applications, e.g. retaining wall, waste landfill, soft ground etc. of soil admixtures mixed with short fiber. Kaolin clay and three types of fiber were selected. To acquire reliable length of fibers, an auto cutter was used and a helical mixer was also used to avoid floating of fibers during mixing soil and fibers. It is found that reinforcing effect by aspect ratio and mixing ratio of short fiber decreases as confining pressure is increased. Reinforcing effect has a maximum value at the aspect ratio of 120 and the fiber content of 0.6%∼1.2% and low confining pressure like 50kPa.

• 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.10 no.3
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• pp.43-51
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• 2011

This paper describes the results of pullout tests in the laboratory, which are conducted to assess the pullout performance of recently developed geosynthetic strip reinforcement with rounded band anchor. The geosynthetic strip can be used as reinforcements in reinforced soil wall with concrete block facing. The pullout resistance of the geosynthetic strip with rounded band anchor is mobilized by the combination of the interface friction between soil-reinforcement surface and the passive soil resistance caused by the rounded band anchor. Therefore, both the friction resistance and the passive resistance have to be considered in design. From the pullout test results, when the rounded band anchor are formed in the end part of the geosynthetic strip, pullout strength increases about from 10% to 65%. The passive resistance can be evaluated based on the pullout test results.