• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3C
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• pp.167-178
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• 2008

Rainfall-induced slope failures were simulated by seepage and stability analyses for actual slopes of weathered soils. After undisturbed sampling and testing on a specimen of unsaturated conditions, a seepage analysis was performed under actual rainfall and it was found that the pore water pressure increased at the boundary of soil and rock layers. The safety factor of slope stability decreased below 1.0 and the failure of actual slope could be simulated. Under design rainfall intensity, the seepage analysis could not include the effects of the antecedent rainfall and the rainfall duration. Due to these limitations, the safety factor of slope stability resulted in above 1.0, since the hydraulic head of soil layers had not be affected significantly. In the analysis of another slope failure, the parameters of unsaturated conditions were evaluated using artificial neural network (ANN). In the analysis of seepage, the boundary of soil and rock was saturated sufficiently and then the safety factor could be calculated below 1.0. It was found that the failure of actual slope can be simulated by ANN-based estimation.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.227-236
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• 2003

The evaluation of the reliable strength and deformation characteristics of weathered granite masses is very important for the design of geotechnical structure under working stress conditions. Various types of laboratory test such as triaxial compression test can be performed to determine the strength parameters. However, it is very difficult to obtain the representative undisturbed samples on the site and also the rock specimen cannot represent rock mass including discontinuities, fracture zone, etc. This study aims to investigate the strength and deformation characteristics of granite masses corresponding to its weathering and develop a practical strength parameter evaluation method using the results of PMT. To predict weathering intensity and strength parameters of the weathered granite masess in the field, various laboratory tests and in-situ tests including field triaxial test and PMT are carried out. Based on the results of weathering index tests, the classification method is proposed to identify the weathering degree in three groups for the weathered granite masses. Using the analytical method based on the Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria and the cavity expansion theory, the strength parameters of rock masses were evaluated from the results of PMT. It shows that weathering intensity increases with decreasing the strength parameters exponentially. The strength parameters evaluated with the results of PM almost coincide with the results of field triaxial test.