• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.61-71
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• 2006

A numerical procedure is presented fur evaluating seismic liquefaction on sloping ground sites. The procedure uses a fully coupled dynamic effective stress analysis with a plastic constitutive model called UBCSAND. The model was first calibrated against laboratory element behavior. This involved cyclic simple shear tests performed on loose sand with and without initial static shear stress. The numerical procedure is then verified by predicting a centrifuge test with a slope performed on loose Fraser River sand. The predicted excess pore pressures, accelerations and displacements are compared with the measurements. The results are shown to be in good agreement. The shear stress reversal patterns depend on static and cyclic shear stress levels and are shown to play a key role in evaluating liquefaction response in sloping ground sites. The sand near the slope has low effective confining stress and dilates more. When no stress reversals occur, the sand behaves in a stiffer manner that curtails the accumulated downslope displacements. The numerical procedure using UBCSAND can serve as a guide for design of new soil structures or retrofit of existing ones.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.5-15
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• 2009

The conventional reinforced earth retaining wall has the connector system to fix the reinforcement and block. However, this system defect may cause the crack of block and the rupture of reinforcement due to the stress concentration near the face of reinforced earth retaining wall. Hence, the new connector system which was able to allow the settlement of reinforcement was developed in this study and a test was carried out in the study area which is divided into the conventional reinforced earth retaining wall and reinforced Earth Retaining Wall driving the settlement. As the results of field monitoring in situ, the ratio of tensile force calculated at maximum value on contiguous portion of front block showed that the settlement type decreased the stress concentration near the face of front block greater than the conventional type.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.93-100
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• 2009

A core procedure of the direct search method used in this study is optimizing a difference between objective function and real displacement and correcting unknown variables. Because the research procedure comes from back-analyzing of the unknown variable of each layer, back-analyzing results need an additional optimization to minimize interferential effects of unknown variables. Therefore, the direct search method Is used to obtain optimized solutions without a partial differentiation of an objective function. The object of this research is developing the back analysis technique for multi-unknown variables by modeling the soil including underground structure Into upper and lower layer. In order to minimize interferent errors, repeated back analysis is performed and applicability on the real tunnel is examined. Consequently, the multi-layer analysis model is more precise in describing the real behavior of underground structure. It shows the validity of back analysis far multi-layer model which is the understructure placed on multi-layer boundaries.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.69-75
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• 2009

The load distribution and deformation of pile-bent structures are investigated using a numerical study. A numerical analysis that takes into account the effects of varying cross-sectional area was performed for different pier diameters, loading steps, and soil conditions. Through the comparison study, it is shown that the location of maximum bending moment is almost the same per each loading step, regardless of varying cross-sections. However, the member force (i.e., stress of pile material) has the largest value at the ground surface when the cross-section is changed. Based on the results obtained, it is found that the location of maximum member force influences highly the behavior of pile-bent structure with varying cross-sections for repair works.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.37-45
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• 2010

Salt cementation, a typical naturally-cemented phenomenon, may occur due to water evaporation under the change of climate. Capillary force may influence the distribution of cement in granular soils. This study addresses the effect of capillary force on salt cementation using five different techniques: cone penetration test, electrical conductivity measurement, photographic imaging technique, nondestructive imaging technique, and process monitoring by elastic wave. Glass beads modeling a particulate media was mixed with salt water and then dried in an oven to create the cementation condition. Experimental results show that salt cementation highly concentrates at the top of the small particle size specimens and at the middle or the bottom of the large particle specimens. The predicted capillary heights are similar to the locations of high salt concentration in the cemented specimens. Five suggested methods show that the behavior of salt-cemented granular media heavily depends on the capillary force.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.79-90
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• 2007

Behaviors of instrumented steel sheet piles which are installed in sand ground by vibratory hammer were investigated. Especially, stresses acting on the pile during vibratory driving, efficiency factor which reflects differences between theoretical driving force and actually delivered acting force, justifiability of rigidity of steel sheet pile, dynamic resistance characteristics of soil and penetration characteristics of sheet pile were analysed. According to the field test results it is justifiable that steel sheet pile behaves as a rigid body during vibratory driving. And it can be seen that maximum stress acting on sheet pile section is far less than tensile strength of the material. Value of the maximum section force at sheet pile head was 72% of that estimated from theoretical equation. Magnitudes of displacement amplitudes computed from displacement-time history curve corresponding to four penetration depths were in the range of 16 $\sim$ 75% of that specified by manufacturer.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.27-36
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• 2007

A model test was performed to evaluate the stability of a new earth retention system with a prestressed wale. For the model test, the dimensional analysis of a full-scaled earth retention system with prestressed wales was performed. Details of the dimensional analysis of the new earth retention system were presented in this paper. Based on the results of the dimensional analysis, the model-scaled earth retention system with a prestressed wale was simulated. The lateral earth pressures on the wall, the lateral deflection of the prestressed wale, the sectional force on members of the prestressed wale system, and the loads of struts were measured during construction simulation. The measured results were evaluated and compared with those of the design criterion. From the measurements, the behavior of this earth retention system was investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.163-174
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• 2007

A New pre-loading system, through which a large pre-load could be charged was developed and applied to the braced wall in order to stabilize the adjacent tunnel. A pre-load larger than the designated axial force of bracing was imposed to prevent the horizontal displacement of the braced wall during the ground excavation. For this purpose, real scale model tests (1/10) were conducted, without and with pre-load on braced wall. And numerical analyses were performed for both the cases without and with pre-load, which were half (50%) and full (100%) respectively, and larger scale of the design axial farce of bracing. FEM program called PLAXIS was used for numerical analysis. As a result, it was found that the stability of the existing tunnel adjacent to the braced wall could be greatly enhanced when the horizontal displacement of braced wall was reduced by applying a pre-load, which was larger than the designated axial force of bracing.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.93-103
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• 2008

For conventional gravity type offshore structures constructed on the soft ground, which is located on the western and/or southern Korea, the excessive consolidation settlements are caused by the self-weight of the structures and so additional ground treatment methods are generally needed. Several types of improved foundation systems utilizing buoyancy applicable to even the soft ground were introduced for economical and efficient design of the offshore structure. In this study, a series of numerical simulations on the consolidation and lateral behaviors of breakwaters with the improved foundation systems utilizing buoyancy were carried out. From the results of numerical simulations it is found that the foundation systems utilizing buoyancy are efficient for reducing the maximum consolidation settlements without reducing lateral safety.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.149-160
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• 2008

Offshore pile foundations are prone to lateral soil pressures resulting from embankment construction for the reclamation on deepwater soft clay. Since the 1990s, offshore reclamation has actively progressed in Korea, connecting with the development of Songdo newtown, Incheon newport, and Busan newport representatively. Special attention has been given to lateral soil-structure interaction problems related to passively-loaded offshore pile foundations. Based on a plane strain large deformation finite element (LDFE) approach, this paper presents the results of investigation into undrained (short-term) and drained (long-term) behavior of passively-loaded offshore pile foundations. This study examines the effects of major factors, such as soil profile, pile head boundary condition, magnitude of embankment load, and average degree of consolidation. The results allowed quantification of differences in the magnitude of lateral soil pressure acting on the piles between undrained and drained phases.