• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.89-98
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• 2008

In this study, the behaviour of an unsaturated soil was analyzed by performing $K_0$ consolidated triaxial tests. Unsaturated triaxial tests were performed with matric suctions for weathered soils and stress paths under consolidation and stress-strain relationships under shear were obtained. As a result, the $K_0$ value decreased as the matric suction increased. Besides, both isotropic and $K_0$ conditions had similar shear strength envelopes at the same matric suction. Especially, strength parameters could be obtained by stress variables used in the critical state theory more reasonably than by those of Mohr circles at failure.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.53-60
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• 2010

The comprehensive tests on unsaturated weathered granite soils are carried out to obtain the soil-water characteristic curve that is the one of the essential requisites to study the unsaturated soil. The weathered granite soils were obtained at Palgong mountain in Daegu. The existing test results have been carried out without overburden pressures and volume changes. In this study, the volumetric pressure plate extractor is improved to consider two factors such as overburden pressure and volume change. The applied overburden pressures were 0, 25, 50, 75, 100kPa and volume changes were measured at each phase. he results of this study are summarized as follows: As the overburden pressure increases, the volumetric water content decreases at the same matric suction and the air entry value increases and gradient of curve at the transition zone and the size of the hysteresis loops decreases. As the overburden pressure increases, the degree of saturation increases at the same matric suction and degree of saturation of the wetting curve is higher than that of dry curve. The SWCC with volume changes are slightly larger than those without volume changes. The general equation proposed by Fredlund & Xing(1994) to fit the experimental result of the SWCC indicates good agreement. The empirical parameters a, n, m as overburden pressure show similar inclination as the existing results.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.13-20
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• 2009

Generally, soil is regarded as fully saturated in Geotechnical Engineering and under ground structure design. Because it is in convenience and safety. But soils treated in field are almost in unsaturated state. Design in unsaturated state is difficult comparing with saturated soil. In unsaturated soil mechanics, parameters are usually not constant unlike saturated soil mechanics. Additionally lab or field tests in unsaturated soil mechanics are required more cost, time and theoretical difficulty. One of essential requisites for examination about unsaturated soil is Soil-Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC). It show the relation between soil suction and soil water content. Through many studies in and out of country, computation and testing methods for SWCC were introduced. But in this the country, most soil is granite soil that is widely spread in Korea. And the studies for granite soil's SWCC are not enough yet. In this paper, through studying for existing proposal methods about computation SWCC and collection data for domestic granite soils, It was determined the suitable method for domestic granite soils, and computed each granite soil's SWCC. The purpose of this paper is establishing database for domestic granite soil's SWCC as each region to convenience for applying to actual affairs. For this, studying about existing proposal methods for SWCC was performed and a computer program Soil-Vision is used. Furthermore for verification theoretical and testing methods were also performed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.123-133
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• 2001

Since most of soil slopes are in an unsaturated state, it is necessary to consider the unsaturated characteristics of soil slopes, in order to obtain more reasonable results. Therefore in this study we supplemented a slope stability analysis program to consider them, based on the concept of limit equilibrium. We also applied an optimization technique to search for a failure surface. Besides, we carried out experiments to obtain the unsaturated soil properties required in the analysis with weathered granite soils. We formulated a nonlinear apparent cohesion relationship with the matrix suction to be able to apply the unsaturated shear strength characteristics to the stability analysis. In addition, we intended to obtain more accurate soil water characteristic curves(SWCC) by measuring the change in volume of the specimen in the SWCC tests. As a result, we could appropriately assess the change of the safety factor according to the rainfall intensity and duration, by considering the variation of suction, permeability, and shear strength caused by the infiltration of rainfall into slopes.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.299-304
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• 2015

Slope stability analysis of unsaturated soil slopes due to rainfall infiltration is an important issue in evaluating landslide analysis and stability assessment. The purpose of this study is to establish the critical depth considering weathered soil of parent rock and rainfall intensity at main scarp in national landslide. Based on the analytical results, it is found that as rainfall duration and Slope angle increased, the critical depth of gneiss-weathered soil increased from 3.00 m to 3.77 m, the critical depth of granite weathered-soil increased from 1.75 m to 2.40 m, and the critical depth of mudstone-weathered soil increased from 3.00 m to 4.15 m, respectively. The critical depth of granite-weathered soil with low cohesion and high internal friction angle is much lower than those of other soils. It is interestingly shown that a decrease in the safety factor is highly significant, much affected by the slope increase rather than the rainfall intensity.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.181-194
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• 1999

Both the chemical components and the physical and mechanical properties of the compacted and undisturbed weathered granite soils were estimated to investigate the influences of the degree of weathering and saturation on the shear strength. The weathered granite soils used in this study were taken from six different sites in Korea. The results showed that the shear strength of weathered granite soil decreased with increasing the degree of weathering and saturation. Under the normal stresses less that 40kPa, the shape of Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope followed curved or hyperbolic relationship and a half of cohesion value obtained by the common shear test was observed. Using the Sueoka's method, the values of CWI were ranged from 21.5 to 31.26 which can be characterized as a completely weathered granite soil. Large decrease in shear strength and remarkable variation in dilatancy were observed in saturated granite soil compared to unsaturated soil. It was also found that the shear strength of undisturbed weathered granite soil of Pungam site can be expressed approximately by the equation of ${(\tau)_{sat}= 1.0(\tau)_{unsat}-12.48}$ and this equation can be extended to the other sites considered in this study.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.109-120
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• 2004

There has been outstanding research on the soil-water characteristic curves of unsaturated soils over the past several decades. Unfortunately, unsaturated soil mechanics has not been considered as an important factor in Korea. In this paper, laboratory test and numerical analysis(SoilVision Professional ver 3.04) were performed to investigate the prediction method of soil-water characteristic curve and unsaturated permeability coefficient in reclaimed ground. The pressure cell, desiccator, and tensiometor tests were conducted on three types of reclaimed soils(dredged soil, sand, weathered granite soil). Numerical analysis was executed to compare the results with the laboratory test results and also compared with the results of each prediction method. Based on the laboratory test, three different types of soils have shown different soil-water characteristic curves. The hysteresis fir these soils is clearly defined. As a result of numerical analysis, Fredlund & Xing's method and Fredlund & Wilson's model proved to worke out well for reclaimed ground soils in Korea. Also, predicting method based on the soil-water characteristic curves from the particle-size distributions is flirty reliable for estimating unsaturated permeability coefficient.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.67-74
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• 2007

Many studies for slope stability studies have indicated that the infiltration of rainwater into a slope decrease the slope stability. In order to minimize damage caused by slope failure, most design codes suggest that the slope stability be analyzed by saturated condition during rainy season. However it would be excessively conservative condition that every soil slope is saturated in rainy season irrespective of rainfall intensity, soil type and slope geometry. In addition, because most soil slopes are in an unsaturated state, it is necessary to consider the unsaturated characteristics of slope. This paper suggests a prediction method of saturation time for the weathered granite soil slopes due to rainfalls. The finite element analysis of transient water flow through unsaturated slope was used to investigate effects of soil-water characteristics, permeability at saturation, slope geometry, and rainfall intensity. From the result of these analyses, the prediction charts considering soil-water characteristics, permeability at saturation, and slope height were proposed in this study. It is possible to the time required to be saturated slope after rainfall.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.133-145
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• 2011

Unsaturated soil column tests were performed for weathered gneiss soil and weathered granite soil to assess the relationship between infiltration velocity and rainfall condition for different rainfall durations and for multiple rainfall events separated by dry periods of various lengths (herein, 'rainfall break duration'). The volumetric water content was measured using TDR (Time Domain Reflectometry) sensors at regular time intervals. For the column tests, rainfall intensity was 20 mm/h and we varied the rainfall duration and rainfall break duration. The unit weight of weathered gneiss soil was designed 1.21 $g/cm^3$, which is lower than the in situ unit weight without overflow in the column. The in situ unit weight for weathered granite soil was designed 1.35 $g/cm^3$. The initial infiltration velocity of precipitation for the two weathered soils under total amount of rainfall as much as 200 mm conditions was $2.090{\times}10^{-3}$ to $2.854{\times}10^{-3}$ cm/s and $1.692{\times}10^{-3}$ to $2.012{\times}10^{-3}$ cm/s, respectively. These rates are higher than the repeated-infiltration velocities of precipitation under total amount of rainfall as much as 100 mm conditions ($1.309{\times}10^{-3}$ to $1.871{\times}10^{-3}$ cm/s and $1.175{\times}10^{-3}$ to $1.581{\times}10^{-3}$ cm/s, respectively), because the amount of precipitation under 200 mm conditions is more than that under 100 mm conditions. The repeated-infiltration velocities of weathered gneiss soil and weathered granite soil were $1.309{\times}10^{-3}$ to $2.854{\times}10^{-3}$ cm/s and $1.175{\times}10^{-3}$ to $2.012{\times}10^{-3}$ cm/s, respectively, being higher than the first-infiltration velocities ($1.307{\times}10^{-2}$ to $1.718{\times}10^{-2}$ cm/s and $1.789{\times}10^{-2}$ to $2.070{\times}10^{-2}$ cm/s, respectively). The results reflect the effect of reduced matric suction due to a reduction in the amount of air in the soil.

• 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.