• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1085-1101
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• 2015

Changes in substructure conditions, such as ballast fouling and subgrade settlement may cause the railway quality deterioration, including the differential geometry of the rails. The objective of this study is to develop and apply a hybrid cone penetrometer (HCP) to characterize the railway substructure. The HCP consists of an outer rod and an inner mini cone, which can dynamically and statically penetrate the ballast and the subgrade, respectively. An accelerometer and four strain gauges are installed at the head of the outer rod and four strain gauges are attached at the tip of the inner mini cone. In the ballast, the outer rod provides a dynamic cone penetration index (DCPI) and the corrected DCPI (CDCPI) with the energy transferred into the rod head. Then, the inner mini cone is pushed to estimate the strength of the subgrade from the cone tip resistance. Laboratory application tests are performed on the specimen, which is prepared with gravel and sandy soil. In addition, the HCP is applied in the field and compared with the standard dynamic cone penetration test. The results from the laboratory and the field tests show that the cone tip resistance is inversely proportional to the CDCPI. Furthermore, in the subgrade, the HCP produces a high-resolution profile of the cone tip resistance and a profile of the CDCPI in the ballast. This study suggests that the dynamic and static penetration tests using the HCP may be useful for characterizing the railway substructure.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.49-58
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• 2012

In many countries including Korea, the design concept of pavement structure has been converted from empirical method to mechanisticempirical method since the advent of compaction control based on resilient modulus proposed by AASHTO in 1986. Studies of last decades indicates that the classical compaction control method based on relative compaction and plate bearing test(PBT) will necessarily move to the methods taking advantage of light falling weight deflectometer(LFWD) and dynamic cone penetrometer(DCP) in addition to PBT. In this study, the validity of resilient modulus prediction equation proposed by Korean Pavement Design Guide is verified by comparison with physical properties of subgrade soil and the results of structural analysis. In addition, correlational equations between elastic modulus measured by various field tests and resilient modulus estimated by empirical model are proposed. Finally, a field test-based compaction control procedure for subgrade is suggested by using proposed correlational equations.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.5-13
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• 2004

Conventional railroad roadbeds constructed with soils can easily deteriorate with time due to the increase of repeated traffic loading, increase of train speed, built-up of ground water on the roadbed and decrease of permeability in the roadbed layer, etc. In this study, performance of reinforced railroad roadbeds with the crushed stones was investigated through the real scale roadbed tests and numerical analysis. It was found that the reinforced roadbed with crushed stone had less elastic and plastic vertical displacement(settlement) than general soil roadbed regardless of the number of loading cycles. It was also found through the actual testing that for the roadbed with the same thickness, the displacement of reinforced roadbed decreases with the increase of subgrade reaction modulus. The settlement of reinforced roadbed with the same subgrade reaction modulus also decreases with the increase of thickness of the reinforced roadbed. However, the subgrade reaction modulus is a more important factor to the total plastic displacement of the track than the thickness of the crushed stone roadbed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.927-935
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• 2011

In-situ California Bearing Ratio(CBR) test has been widely used for evaluating the subgrade condition in pavements. However, because the in-situ CBR test is expensive and takes time for operation, it is difficult to figure out the in-situ characteristics of subgrade strength in detail. For faster and economical operation, the Dynamic Cone Penetrometer(DCP) has been often utilized for estimating the subgrade strength in the field. The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationship between CBR value and DCP index of the embankment constructed with mixtures of soil and waste lime. Waste lime used in this study is producted as a by-product in the manufacturing process of making $Na_2CO_3$ from local chemical factory in Incheon. In this field measurement, the geotechnical tests such as field water content, field density, field CBR test, and dynamic cone penetration test were conducted.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.37-46
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• 2008

Application of resilient modulus, representing mechanical behavior of pavement materials, has become general concept for pavement design, analysis and maintenance after '86 AASHTO selected it as a basic input property of subgrade. It is known that resilient modulus of domestic subgrade soil is affected greatly by material factors, such as water content and dry weight unit, and stress components, such as deviatoric stress and confining stress, while effects of loading frequency and loading repeat were regarded negligible. If design based on resilient modulus is to be successfully implemented, design input variables of relevant models should be able to reflect local conditions. In this study, generalized mechanical model for subgrade is proposed. Model parameters are estimated from test results. Verification of the model was performed through finite element analysis using the proposed model, which showed good agreement with measured results of pavement deflections.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.237-244
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• 2000

Piles are often subjected to both axial and lateral loads. The nonlinear subgrade reaction method is widely used for the design of laterally loaded piles and in this approach the soil reaction is replaced with a series of independent nonlinear Winkler springs. In this study, Laterally loaded high strength H-piles were analyzed using a finite difference solution, and three p-y curve models with different k values(the coefficient of horizontal subgrade reaction, ［FL$\^$-3/］) were evaluated using data obtained from various field tests, and another analysis method using Q$\sub$g/ - y$\sub$g/ curve was developed. The results of this analysis were compared with the measured values to assess their applicability.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.105-111
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• 2010

It is very important to select carefully backfill materials and build for the structural integrity of abutment in bridge. In general, backfill materials of unbound crushed stones (SB-1) are used to provide the safety of abutment structure and to reduce differential settlement around abutment that is significantly related with performance of road pavement under working conditions. In this study, to evaluate the compatibility of backfill materials at abutment and to develop the abutment design program, i) basic properties of subgrade soils in Korea, ii) evaluation of deformational characteristics of backfill materials from RC/TS tests, cyclic TX tests and Creep tests were accomplished.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2013

PURPOSES: This study is to evaluate a ground water level effect on frost heaving in road pavements. METHODS: The effects of water table on frost heaving in pavement systems were evaluated from the mechanical analysis using FROST program. The input parameters and boundary conditions were determined by considering climates, pavement sections, and material properties specially subgrade soil types in Korea. RESULTS: When the water table located above the freezing depth, amount of frost heaving caused by freezing the water in pavement itself was big enough to damage in pavement system, although pavement system consists of fully non-frost-susceptible materials with sufficient thickness of anti-freezing layer. The amount of frost heaving was decreased rapidly with increasing the distance between the water table and freezing depth. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that there is no engineering problems related with frost heaving in practical sense when the distance between freezing depth and water table is over 1.5m for having subgrade soils less than 50% of #200 sieve passing to meet specification on quality control in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.19-25
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• 2009

The current study developed light-weighted mixed soil that can solve problems related with soft soil such as ground subsidence, sliding and lateral displacement of ground. By reducing weight of reclaimed soil through mixing phosphogypsum and recycled EPS beads with the weathered granite soil. A series of geotechnical laboratory tests including physical index test, compaction test, CBR test, and direct shear test were performed and engineering properties were reviewed in order to assess applicability of the light-weighted mixed soil for roads and abutment and various back-filling materials at the reclamation area. Based on the laboratory test results, it was found that the maximum dry unit weight of the light-weighted soil ranges $14.32{\sim}15.79kN/m^3$ and the optimum water content ranges 21.91~24.23%, which means there is 11~19.3% weight decrease effect when comparing with general weathered granite soil. Also it was found that the corrected CBR value ranges 10.4~18.4% satisfying the domestic regulations on road subgrade and back-filling material. In addition, as for shear strength parameter, cohesion ranges 10.79~18.64 kPa and internal frictional angle ranges $35.4{\sim}37.2^{\circ}$, which are similar with those of general construction soil and back-filling material used in Korea. So it can be concluded that light-weighted mixed soil with phosphogypsum can be used effectively for soft reclamation ground as actual filling material and back-filling material. From the current study, it was found that light-weighted mixed soil with phosphogypsum has not only weight reduction effect, but also has no special problems in shear strength and bearing capacity. Therefore, it is expected that phosphogypsum can be recycled in bulk as road subgrade and back-filling material at the reclamation area.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.329-336
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• 2013

The infrastructure of flexible pavement is composed of aggregate subbase, anti-frost layer, and subgrade. In particular, the subgrade performance is affected by climates such as frost action and precipitation. The method of TDR(Time Domain Reflectometry) sensors to measure moisture contents in subgrade layer has been used in the research. Due to the TDR method using dielectric permitivity of soil and water, the sensors can be affected by the low subgrade temperatures. The air temperatures frequently drops below $-20^{\circ}C$ in the winter in Korea. As a result, it is necessary to estimate the accuracy of the TDR moisture sensors in the range of below zero temperatures. In this study, the subgrade temperatures of lower than $-2^{\circ}C$ were extended to evaluate temperature sensitivity of the TDR moisture sensors. The test results revealed that the moisture contents around the sensors were reduced while those of the upper part of specimen showed a tendency to increase as the specimen surface temperature drops below zero under the volumetric moisture contents(VMC) of 20% and 30%. However, the impact of temperature on the function of the sensor at lower water contents was found to be negligible if any.