• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.17-24
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• 2006

This paper presents the two field walls that demonstrate the effect of rainfall on the performance of soil-reinforced retaining wall. A field test wall constructed in Geotechnical Experimental Site at Sungkyunkwan University has been monitored for more than 8 months to study the long-term behavior of soil-reinforced retaining wall. The measured data showed a good correlation between rainfall and wall movement after wall completion. A case of failed soil-reinforced retaining wall also is presented to highlight the effect of rainfall on the performance of soil-reinforced retaining wall. Implications of the findings are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.47-55
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• 2003

This paper presents the two field walls that demonstrate the effect of rainfall on the performance of soil-reinforced retaining wall. A field test wall constructed in Geotechnical Experimental Site at Sungkyunkwan University has been monitored for more than 8 months to study the long-term behavior of soil-reinforced retaining wall. The measured data showed a good correlation between rainfall and wall movement after wall completion. A case of failed soil-reinforced retaining wall also is presented to highlight the effect of rainfall on the performance of soil-reinforced retaining wall. Implications of the findings are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.115-125
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• 2003

This paper presents the results of design case study on soil-reinforced segmental retaining walls in tiered configuration. Six different field walls were examined to investigate the appropriateness of their designs within the context of the current design guidelines based on limit equilibrium. Slope stability analysis against the compound failure mode, which is frequently ignored during design, was additionally performed based on the method recommended by FHWA design guidelines. The results indicate that the as-built designs of some of the walls examined do not meet the minimum factors of safety for the external and Internal stabilities, and for the compound failure mode. The implications of the findings from this study are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2004

This paper presents the results of stability analyses on soil-reinforced segmental retaining walls in a tiered arrangement. Four different walls were examined to investigate the appropriateness of their designs within the context of the current design guidelines based on limit equilibrium. Slope stability analysis against the compound failure mode, which is frequently ignored during design, was also performed based on the method recommended by FHWA design guidelines. Also presented are the results of instrumentation on a full-scale field trial wall constructed as part of this study. The implications of the findings from this study are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.41-50
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• 2000

Segmental retaining wall market in Korea has been growing dramatically since late 1990s in both engineered and non-engineered applications. Despite the inherent conservatism in the current design approaches, numerous major and minor structural problems have been reported during and after construction, covering a range of minor structural damage to total collapse. Much still needs to be investigated to fill the gap between the theory and the practice. This paper reviews several design issues with regard to the segmental retaining walls such as the selection of shear strength parameters for backfill soil, local stability, and tiered wall construction. In addition, the effects of shear strength parameters and the fundamental behavior of tiered SRWs are examined based on the results of finite element analysis. Implications of the findings from this study to current design practices were discussed in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.1562-1571
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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.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.7-19
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• 2002

This paper presents the results of an investigation on the effect of foundation stiffness on the performance of soil-reinforced segmental retaining walls (SRWalls). Laboratory model tests were performed using a reduced-scale physical model to capture the fundamentals of the manner in which the foundation stiffness affects the behavior of SRWalls. A series of finite-element analyses were additionally performed on a prototype wall in order to supplement the findings from the model tests and to examine full-scale behavior of SRWalls encountered in the field. The results of the present investigation indicate that lateral wall displacements significantly increase with the decrease of the foundation stiffness. Also revealed is that the increase in wall displacements is likely to be caused by the rigid body movement of the reinforced soil mass with negligible internal deformation within the reinforced soil mass. The findings from this study support the current design approaches, in which the problem concerning the foundation condition are treated in the frame work of the external stability rather than the internal stability. The implications of the findings from this study to current design approaches are discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.51-61
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• 2000

This paper reviews fundamentals of a pseudo-static seismic design/analysis method for soil-reinforced segmental retaining walls. A comparative study on NCMA and FHWA seismic design guidelines, which are one of the most well known design guidelines for mechanically stabilized earth walls, was also performed. The results demonstrate that there exist significant discrepancies in the results of external stability analysis despite the same calculation model used in the two guidelines, due primarily to different seismic coefficient selection criteria. It is also demonstrated that the internal stability calculation model for NCMA guideline tends to yield larger seismic reinforcement force in the shallower reinforcement layers, resulting in an increased number of reinforcement layers at the top of reinforced wall and increased reinforcement lengths to ensure adequate anchorage capacity. The internal stability calculation model adopted by FHWA guideline, however, leads to redistribution of dynamic force to the lower reinforcement layers and thus results n an opposite trend of NCMA guideline. Findings from this study clearly demonstrate a need for more in-depth studies to develop a generally acceptable design/analysis method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.1-11
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• 2001

This Paper presents the result of a parametric study on the behavior of stiffened grid reinforced segmental wall resting on non-yielding foundation. The parametric study was conducted using the nonlinear finite element analysis. In the finite element analysis, the step by step construction of the wall such as backfill, block reinforcement, block/backfill and soil/reinforcement interfaces were carefully modeled. The mechanical behavior of stiffened grid reinforced segmental walls was then investigated based on the result of analysis with emphasis on the effect of reinforcement stiffness on the behavior of the wall. The results of analysis indicate that the horizontal wall displacement decrease; with increasing the reinforcement stiffness at a decreasing rate, and that the horizontal stress at the back of the reinforced soil block does not much vary with the reinforcement stiffness. It is also revealed that the calculated maximum vertical stress at the base of the reinforced soil block agrees well with that based on the Meyerhof distribution and that the reinforcement and the connection force are considerably smaller than what might be expected based on the current design assumptions. The implications of the findings from this study to current design approaches were discussed in detail.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.620-625
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• 2002

In this study, the simulated cyclic train loading test was carried out in order to investigate the dynamic behavior in/at the block type reinforced earth retaining wall. The results in this test were compared with unreinforced and reinforced case, respectively. It was shown that we confirmed the correlation between earth pressure and displacement, the confining effect of wall displacement by the effect of geogrid.