• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.743-750
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• 2002

Unsaturated soil has a possibility to induce a negative pore water pressure. Until now, saturated soil is mainly focused on the research of soil mechanics. Recently, soil mechanics is researched on two major parts such as saturated and unsaturated soil mechanics. Negative pore water pressure has a non-linear relationship with the water content changes. Soil-water characteristic curves of soil in Korea are not determined. There is no proper characteristic value such as air-entry value and residual water content. In this study, the characteristic curves of reclaimed soil, sand, and weathered granite soil were determined by laboratory tests. Air-entry value and residual water content were determined by fitting methods. Soil-water characteristic curves were estimated based on the particle-size distribution and compared with the laboratory test results. The results of soil-water characteristic curves estimation indicated that Fredlund and Wilson's model is excellent for sand and weathered granite soil. Arya and Paris's model is excellent for reclaimed soil.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.537-549
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• 2020

The presence of cracks changes the water content pattern during seepage through a cracked soil as compared to that of intact soil. In addition, several different crack networks may form in one soil type. These two factors result in a variation of water contents in the soil matrix part of a cracked soil during seepage. This paper presents an investigation of the effect of crack network representation on the water content of the soil matrix part of cracked soil using numerical models. A new method for the numerical generation of crack networks incorporating connections among crack endpoints was developed as part of the investigation. Numerical analysis results indicated that the difference in the point water content was large, whereas the difference in the average water content was relatively small, indicating the uniqueness of the crack network representation on the average water content of the soil matrix part of cracked soil.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.391-398
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• 2014

Identifying soil water content as a major factor for evaluating irrigation and water resource is a primary module to develop a prediction model. A variety of PTFs (Pedo-Transfer Functions) are applied in the models to estimate soil water content, the analysis techniques, however, which compare the estimated from models and the measured by instruments, are not reached at the level to demonstrate the effectiveness of the PTFs in Korea. Many soil physicians such as Eom, Peterson, Rawls, Saxton, Bruand, Baties, Tomasella & Hodnett (T&H), and Minasny, have developed analytic models using PTFs. Soil data for the analysis used soil water contents on 347 soil series (10 kPa), 358 soil series (33 kPa), 356 soil series (1,500 kPa) established by NAAS (National Academy of Agricultural Science). A coefficient of determination on soil water content at 10, 33 and 1,500 kPa was the highest as 0.5932 in EM (Eom model), 0.6744 in REM (Rawls model) and 0.6108 in REM, respectively. In conclusion, it is strongly suggested that the use of EM or REM is suitable for estimating soil water content in Korea although SM (Saxton model) has been widely used.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.86-88
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• 2002

The mathematical model was proposed to simulate ozone transport and remediation in unsaturated soils contaminated with phenanthrene. Soil column experiments were also carried out to calibrate the mathematical model. The experimental results successfully matched with the modeling results in various soil conditions. The model proposed nondimensional fraction factor to reveal reactivity between phenanthrene and gas phase ozone and liquid phase ozone. From sensitivity analysis, the fraction factor and stoichiometric coefficient decreased as water content increased. Simulation results showed increased SOM content retarded the ozone transport and the phenanthrene removal due to increased ozone consumption.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.377-384
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• 2000

The characteristics and prediction model of the shear strength for unsaturated residual soils was studied. In order to investigate the influence of the initial water content on the shear strength, unsaturated triaxial tests were carried out varying the initial water content, and the applicability of existing prediction models for the unsaturated shear strength was testified. It was shown that the soil - water characteristic curve and the shear strength of the unsaturated soil varied with the change of the initial water content. A sample compacted in the lower initial water content needs a higher suction to get the same degree of saturation while the shear strength of a sample with the lower initial water content displays a lower value. In order to apply the existing prediction models of the unsaturated shear strength to granite residual soils, a correction coefficient, α, on the internal friction angle, ø'was added.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.434-438
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• 2009

This study was conducted to design an cone penetrometer type impedance sensor that can measure soil water content in realtime. The best width between electrical probe was determined by 5 mm. For optimization about realtime application device, linear regression analysis was applied between soil water content and impedance signal. It was concluded that proper combination of excitation frequency, impedance parameter, and model would provide acceptible performance of a soil waler content sensoe. Best model was obatained at a 36.5 MHz with |Z| as a predictor variable, with a coefficient of determination of 0.96 (RMSE=1.35, RPD=4.98).

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2021

Air-water interfacial area is of great importance for the analysis of contaminant mass transfer processes occurring in the soil systems. Capillary bundle model has been proposed to estimate the specific air-water interfacial areas in unsaturated soils. In this study, the measured air-water interfacial areas of a soil (loam) using the gaseous interfacial tracer technique were compared to those from capillary bundle model. The measured values converged to the specific solid surface area (7.6×104 ㎠/㎤) of the soil. However, the simulated air-water interfacial areas based on the capillary bundle model deviated significantly from those measured. The simulated values were substantially over-estimated at low end of the water content range, whereas the model under-estimated the air-water interfacial area for the most of the water content range. This under-estimation is considered to be caused by the nature of the capillary bundle model that replaces the soil pores with a bundle of glass capillaries and thus no surface roughness at the inner surface of the capillaries is taken into account for the estimation of the air-water interfacial area with the capillary bundle model. Subsequently, appropriate correction is necessary for the capillary bundle model to estimate the air-water interfacial area in soils. Since the soil-moisture release curve data is the basis of the capillary bundle model, the model can be of use due to its simplicity, while the gaseous tracer technique requires complicated experimental equipment followed by moment analysis of the breakthrough curves. The size distribution profile of the pores filled with gas estimated by the water retention curve was found to be similar to that of particle size at different size range. The shifted distribution of gas-filled pores toward smaller size side compared to the particle size distribution was also found.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.51-62
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• 2019

In this study, a simple method to estimate the soil water content variation in a wide area was proposed using hyperspectral near-infrared images. The reflectance data of a sand, granite soils, and a kaolinite were measured by reflecting the soil samples with different wavelengths in the visible and near-infrared (VNIR) regions using hyperspectral cameras. The measured reflectances and parameters were used to build a water content prediction model using the Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) analysis. In the water content prediction model, the Area of Reflectance (Near-infrared, NIR) parameter was the most suitable parameter to determine the water content. The parameter was applicable regardless of the soil type, as the coefficient of determination (R²) exceeded 0.9 for each soil sample. Additionally, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was less than 15% when compared with the actual water content of the soil. Therefore, the predictability of water content variation for soils with water content lower than 50% was confirmed. Accordingly through this study, the predictability of water content variation in several soil types using the hyperspectral near-infrared images was confirmed. For further development, a model that incorporates soil classification would be required to improve the accuracy of the model and to predict higher range of water contents.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.91-98
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• 2010

The effective thermal conductivity of porous materials is usually determined by porosity, water content, and the conductivity of the matrix. In addition, it is also affected by the internal structure of the materials such as the size, arrangement, and connectivity of the matrix-forming grains. Based on the structural models for multi-phase materials, thermal conductivities of soils and sands measured with varying the water content were analyzed. Thermal conductivities of dry samples were likely to fall in the region between the Maxwell-Eucken model with air as the continuous phase and the matrix as the dispersed phase ($ME_{air}$) and the co-continuous (CC) model. However, water-saturated samples moved down to the region between the $ME_{wat}$ model and the series model. The predictive inconsistency of the structural models for dry and water-saturated samples may be caused by the increase of porosity for water-saturated samples, which leads to decrease of connectivity among the grains of matrix. In cases of variably saturated samples with a uniform grain size, the thermal conductivity showed progressive changes of the structural models from the $ME_{air}$ model to the $ME_{wat}$ model depending on the water content. Especially, an abrupt increase found in 0-20% of the water content, showing transition from the $ME_{air}$ model to the CC model, can be attributed to change of water from the dispersed to continuous phase. On the contrary, the undisturbed soil samples with various sizes of grains showed a gradual increase of conductivity during the transition from the $ME_{air}$ model to the CC model.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.329-333
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• 2006

Most of volcanic ash soils in South Korea are distributed in Jeju province which is an island placed on southern part of Korea and has steep slope mountain area. There are many soils containing high contents of organic matter (OM) derived from volcanic ash in Jejudo, also. Therefore, irrigation and drainage in volcanic ash soil different with general soil which has low OM content have to be applied with another management way, but studies searching appropriate methods for them are set on insufficient situation because the area of volcanic ash soil in South Korea is only 1.3% (130,000ha). This study was conducted for analysis of soil water content and irrigation quantity appropriate for crops cultivated in volcanic ash soil with high OM content. Although soils with different soil color have the same soil texture, soil water characteristics curve by soil color showed the difference of water retention capability by OM content. But, this characteristics classified with soil color could be unified by scaling technique with similitude analysis method which get dimensionless water content using a present water content, a residual water content and saturated water content (or water content at 10kPa). A relation of gravimetric soil water content (GSWC) and dimensionless water content by the results showed a form of power function. The dimensionless water content (DWC) express a relative saturation degree of present water content. This was also expressed by van Genuchten model which describe the relation between relative saturation degrees and matric potentials. These results on soil water characteristics curve (SWCC) of volcanic ash soil will be the basic of irrigation plan in area having high organic contents into soil.