• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.599-606
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• 2010

It has been reported that many slope failures in unsaturated soils are mainly caused by downward infiltration due to rainfall. The rainfall characteristics could be an important factor, and more predictable slope failures can be achieved by considering more reasonable rainfall conditions. So, a need exists that these trends of infiltration in weathered soils, which is commonly found in Korea, are assessed by considering rainfall conditions based on phenomenological approach. In this paper, numerical analyses of unsaturated soil slope under rainfall conditions are presented based on the soil-water characteristic curve in the laboratory and huff method. Then the performance of unsaturated weathered soil slopes was evaluated under various conditions after applying the effect of overburden pressure on SWCCs and fines contents. The results demonstrated that the rainfall conditions using Huff method can be very effective and the proper application on analysis is very important to enhance the prediction on unsaturated slope stability.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2006

Changes in the soil physical property and the topographic condition derived from agricultural activities like as farming activities, land clearance and cutting down resulted in environmental and economic problems including the outflow of nutrient from farms and the water pollution. Several theories on the soil conservation have been developed and reviewed to protect soil erosion in the regions having a high risk of erosion. This study was done using the USLE model developed by Wischmeier and Smith (1978), and model for the slope length and steepness made by Desmet and Govers (1996), and Nearing (1997) to evaluate the potential of the soil erodibility. Therefore, several results were obtained as follows. First, factors affecting the soil erosion based on the USLE could be extracted to examine the erosion potential in farms. Soil erodibility (K), slope length (L), and slope steepness (S) were used as main factors in the USLE in consideration of the soil, not by the land use or land cover. Second, the soil erodibility increased in paddy soils where it is low in soil content, and the very fine sandy loam exists. Analysis of the slope length showed that the value of a flat ground was 1, and the maximum value was 9.17 appearing on the steep mountain. Soil erodibility showed positive relationship to a slope. Third, the potential soil erodibility index (PSEI) showed that it is high in the PSEI of the areas of steep upland and orchard on the slope of mountainous region around Dokjigol mountain, Dunji mountain, and Deummit mountain. And the PSEI in the same land cover was different depending on the slope rather than on the physical properties in soil. Forth, the analysis of land suitability in soil erosion explained that study area had 3,672.35ha showing the suitable land, 390.88ha for the proper land, and 216.54ha for the unsuitable land. For unsuitable land, 8.71ha and 6.29ha were shown in fallow uplands and single cropping uplands, respectively.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.57-64
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• 2011

Three-dimensional slope stability analysis was applied to a failed dual-lithology slope containing both granite and an andesitic dyke, taking account of the differences in shear strength of the different lithologies. A direct shear test of the soil-rock boundary was performed to examine the shear strength of two different types of failure surfaces within different lithologies, and a laboratory test was performed on an upper, weathered soil layer. The test results indicate that shear strength was lower at the soil-rock boundary than within the weathered soil layer. A representative geological section was subjected to two-dimensional slope stability analysis using a limit equilibrium method to assess whether the distribution of lithologies upon the slope influences the results of stability analysis. The results were then compared with those of three-dimensional slope stability analysis, for which input parameters can be varied according to the distribution of lithologies upon the slope. The three-dimensional analysis yielded safety factors of 1.26 under dry conditions and 0.55 under wet conditions, whereas the two-dimensional analysis yielded unstable safety factors of 0.92 and 0.32, respectively. These findings show that the results of stability analysis are affected by the distribution of different lithologies upon the slope. Given that the studied slope collapsed immediately after rainfall, it is likely that the results of the three-dimensional analysis are more reliable.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

Due to climate change and aging of reservoirs, damage to embankment slopes is increasing. However, the safety diagnosis of the reservoir slope is mainly conducted by visual observation, and the time and economic cost are formidable to apply soil mechanical tests and slope stability analysis. Accordingly, this study presented a predicting method for the compaction and strength characteristics of the reservoir embankment soil using a portable static cone penetration test. The predicted items consisted of dry density, cohesion, and internal friction angle, which are the main factors of slope stability analysis. Portable static cone penetration tests were performed at 19 reservoir sites, and prediction equations were constructed from the correlation between penetration resistance data and test results of soil samples. The predicted dry density and strength parameters showed a correlation with test results between R² 0.40 and 0.93, and it was found to replace the test results well when used as input data for slope stability analysis (R² 0.8134 or more, RMSE 0.0320 or less). In addition, the prediction equations for the minimum safety factor of the slope were presented using the penetration resistance and gradient. As a result of comparing the predicted safety factor with the analysis results, R² 0.5125, RMSE 0.0382 in coarse-grained soil, R² 0.4182 and RMSE 0.0628 in fine-grained soil. The results of this study can be used as a way to improve the existing slope safety diagnosis method, and are expected to be used to predict the characteristics of various soils and inspect slopes.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.9-18
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• 2008

Shallow slope failures in residual soil during periods of prolonged infiltration are common in Korea. This study examines an infinite slope analysis to estimate the influence of infiltration on surficial stability of slopes by the limit equilibrium method. Approximate method which is based on the Green-Ampt model have been considered to evaluate the likelihood of shallow slope failure which is induced by a particular rainfall event that accounts for the rainfall intensity and duration for various return periods. Pradel & Raad method which is devised to predict the depth of wetting front to decomposed granite soil slopes having measured soil-water characteristic curves. To compare the results with those obtained from the Pradel & Raad method, a series of numerical analysis using SEEP/W were carried out. It was found that the stability analysis of unsaturated soils calculated by using the soil-water characteristic curve of decomposed granite soils was found to be a proper analysis for shallow slope failures due to rainfall.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.71-75
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• 2014

Forest roads failure is one of the most common problems caused by heavy rainfalls. This study investigated the characteristics on stabilization measures installed for cutting slopes failure of forest road resulted from heavy rainfalls. Three primary factors (slope length, slope gradient, soil type) affecting cutting slope failure were considered and stabilization measures were classified into two types (A type: wooden fence, vegetation sandbag, stone masonry; B type: wire cylinder, gabion, concrete retaining wall) through discriminant analysis based on their capacity of resistance to slope failure. Results showed that A type was mainly installed in such conditions as cut slope <8 m, cut slope gradient $30-40^{\circ}$ and soil type with soil while B type occurred in locational conditions as cut slope length >8 m, cut slope gradient < $30^{\circ}$ and > $30^{\circ}$, and soil type of gravelly soil and rock.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.263-278
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• 2014

The spudcan requires the suitable design considering the soil, platform, and environmental conditions. Its shape needs to be designed to secure sufficient reaction of soil so that it can prevent overturning accidents. Its shape also has to minimize the installation and extraction time. Even in the same soil condition, the reaction of soil may be different depending on the shape of spud can, mainly the slope of top and bottom plates. Therefore, in this study, the relation between the slope of plates and the reaction of soil with and without water jetting is analyzed to better understand their interactions and correlations. For the investigation, a wind turbine installation jack-up rig (WTIJ) is selected as the target platform and the Gulf of Mexico is considered as the target site. A multi layered (sand overlying two clays) soil profile is applied as the assumed soil condition and the soil-structure interaction (SSI) analysis is performed by using ANSYS to analyze the effect of the slope change of the bottom plate and water jetting on the reaction of soil. This kind of investigation and simulation is needed to develop optimal and smart spudcan with water-jetting control in the future.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.125-139
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• 1996

This study was performed to provide the design method for soil structure which guarantees proper safety with uncertainty of soil parameters. For this purpose, the effect of uncertainty of soil parameters for slope stability was analyzed by Bishop's simplified method and Monte Carlo simulation(MC). And reliability analysis program, RESFEM, was developed by combining elastic theory, MC, FEM, SFEM, and reliability, which can consider uncertainty of soil parameters. For factor of safety(FS) 1.0 and 1.2 by Bishop's simplified method, the probability of failure(Pf) was analyzed with varying coefficient of variation(c.o.v.) of soil parameters. The Pf increased as c.o.v. of soil parameters increased. This implies that FS is not the absolute index of slope safety, and even if FS is same, it has different Pf according to c.o.v. of soil parameters. The RESFEM was able to express the Pf at each element in slope quantitatively according to uncertainty of soil parameters. The variation of Pf with uncertainty of soil parameters was analyzed by RESFEM, and it was shown that the Pf increased as the c.o.v. of soil parameters increased.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.261-273
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• 2020

This paper presents an efficient method utilizing user-defined computer functional codes to determine the reliability of an embankment slope with spatially varying soil properties in real time. The soils' mechanical properties varied with the soil layers that had different degrees of compaction and moisture content levels. The Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) for the degree of compaction and Kriging simulation of moisture content variation were adopted and programmed to predict their spatial distributions, respectively, that were subsequently used to characterize the spatial distribution of the soil shear strengths. The shear strength parameters were then integrated into the Geostudio command file to determine the safety factor of the embankment slope. An explicit metamodal for the performance function, using the Kriging method, was established and coded to efficiently compute the failure probability of slope with varying moisture contents. Sensitivity analysis showed that the proposed method significantly reduced the computational time compared to Monte Carlo simulation. About 300 times LHS Geostudio computations were needed to optimize precision and efficiency in determining the failure probability. The results also revealed that an embankment slope is prone to high failure risk if the degree of compaction is low and the moisture content is high.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.47-57
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• 2010

Yield seismic coefficient plays an important role in the estimation of permanent displacement of a soil slope subjected to earthquake using Newmark's sliding block theory. However, yield seismic coefficients currently used in practices are not mechanically rigorous since most of them are estimated using limit equilibrium methods considering equilibrium condition only. Therefore, estimation of permanent displacement of a soil slope based on existing yield seismic coefficient may cause problems. Limit analysis estimating the range of mechanically rigorous solution is thought to be effective in evaluating the validity of existing yield seismic coefficient. In this study, a simple stability chart for yield seismic coefficient useful in practices is proposed by considering various slope conditions including stability number, slope inclination, strength parameters, etc.