• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.19-28
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• 2014

It is necessary to understand the behavior of the soils for the dredging constructions. The objective of this study is to estimate void ratio and density changes of the dredged soils by using the geophysical testing methods. A series of laboratory tests is performed to obtain geotechnical index properties of the specimen, retrieved from the west coastal of Korea. The sedimentation and self-weight consolidation tests are carried out with observing changes of the interfacial height and the elastic wave velocities. The same amounts of the soils are poured into the testing column at intervals of 12 hours until the interheight reaches to a certain level. After the completion of the sedimentatation and self-weight consolidation tests, downward permeability test is performed to assess a tidal influence in the nearshore. The mini resistance cone is penetrated into the specimen to measure the electrical resistivity with depth. All tests are completely finished, the weight of specimens are measured to calculate the void ratio with the depth. Experimental results show that the aspects of the self-weight consolidation are invisible during dredging process because of rapid sedimentation characteristics of ML. However, the elastic wave velocities increase with increasing in the effective stresses. During permeability test, measured permeability and the elastic wave velocities maintain almost identical values. Void ratio based on the elastic wave velocities changes linearly with time during the step dumpings. Void ratio estimated by the electrical resistivity represents the repeatedly layered depositions according to the step-by-step dumpings. Void ratio determined by soil sampling is similar to those of elastic waves and electrical resistivity profiles. This experimental study demonstrates that the geophysical testing methods may be an effective method for evaluating the behavior of dredged soils.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.79-90
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• 2013

Geophysical investigation in non-destructive testing is economically less expensive than boring testing and providing geotechnical information over wide-area. But, it provides only limited geotechnical information, which is hardly used to the design. Accordingly, we performed electrical resistivity experiments on large scale of soil model to analyze the correlation between electrical resistivity response and soil water contents. The soils used in the experiments were the Jumunjin standard sand and weathered granite soil. Each soil particle size distribution and coefficient of uniformity of experimental material obtained in the experiments were maintained in a state of the homogeneous. The specifications of the model used in this study is $160{\times}100{\times}50$(cm) of acrylic, and each soil was maintained at the height 30 cm. The water content were measured using the 5TE sensors (water contents sensors) which is installed 7 ~ 8 cm apart vertically by plugging to floor. The results of the resistivity behavior pattern for Jumunjin standard sand was found to be sensitive to the water content, while the weathered granite soil was showing lower resistivity over the time, and there was no significant change in behavior pattern observed. So, it results that the Jumunjin standard sand's particle current conduction was better than the weathered granite soil's particle through contact with the distilled water. This lab test was also compared with the result of a test bed site composed of similar weathered soil. It was confirmed that these experiments were underlying research of non-destructive investigation techniques to improve the accuracy to estimate the geotechnical parameter.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.119-127
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• 2013

Recently, several researches on the development of new economical foundation types have been performed to support floating structures as many offshore structures have been constructed. This study focused on the evaluation of bearing capacity of group suction piles, which are connected by a concrete pile cap. The offshore floating structures are mainly subjected to horizontal loading, so the horizontal bearing capacities of the group suction piles were analyzed by performing 3-dimensional finite element analyses. The group suction piles are expected to behave as a rigid pile due to its shallow embedded depth. Therefore, the detailed soil modeling was necessary to simulate the bearing behavior of soils under low confining pressure. The modulus and the strength of soils were modelled to increase with effective confining pressure in soils. For the parametric study, the center-to-center spacing between piles was varied and two soil types of clay and sands were applied. The analyses results showed that the yielding load of the group pile increased with the increase of the pile spacing and the yielding load of the group piles with 5D spacing was about 3 times larger than that of the single pile with free rotation.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.5-17
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• 2022

A pile is a type of medium for constructing superstructures in weak geotechnical conditions. A pretensioned spun high-strength concrete (PHC) pile is composed of high-strength concrete with a specified strength greater than 80 MPa. Therefore, it has advantages in resistance to axial and bending moments and quality control and management since it is manufactured in a factory. However, the skin friction of a pile, which accounts for a large portion of the pile bearing capacity, is only approximated using empirical equations or standard penetration test (SPT) N-values. Particularly, there are some poor research results on the pile-soil interface under the seismic loads in Korea. Additionally, some studies do not consider geoenvironmental elements, such as groundwater pH values. This study performs sets of cyclic simple shear tests using submerged concrete specimens for 1 month to consider pH values of groundwater and clay specimens composed of kaolinite to generate a pile-soil interface. 0.2 and 0.4 MPa of normal stress conditions are considered in the case of pH values. The disturbed state concept is employed to express the dynamic behavior of the interface, and the disturbed function parameters are newly suggested. Consequently, the largest disturbance increase under basic conditions is observed, and an early approach to the failure under low normal stress conditions is presented. The disturbance function parameters are also suggested to express this disposition quantitatively.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.115-125
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• 2023

In this study, we evaluated the behavior of frozen soil using an electrical resistivity survey method-a nondestructive technique-and examined its characteristics through field experiments. Frozen soil was artificially prepared by injecting fluid to accelerate the freezing process, and naturally frozen soil was selected in a nearby area for comparison. A dynamic cone penetration test (DCPT) was performed to compare the reliability of the electrical resistivity survey, and time-domain reflectometry surveys were performed to assess the moisture content of the ground. Field experiments were conducted in February-when the atmosphere temperature was below freezing-and May-when the temperature was above freezing. This temperature-compensated method was used to determine reliability because the behavior of frozen soil depends on the underlying temperature. In the resistivity survey method, a section of high electrical resistivity was observed under freezing conditions due to the frozen water and converted into porosity. The converted porosity was compared with the porosity inferred from the DCPT, and the results showed that the measured electrical resistivity was valid.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.53-62
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• 2024

Recently, development of non-traditional energy such as oil sands has been actively conducted in the cold region such as Canada. Frozen soil has different thermal and mechanical characteristics from general soil due to its high organic contents. This study evaluated the impact of organic matter content on the thermal and mechanical behavior of frozen soil samples collected from Alberta, Canada, and Gangwon Province, South Korea. As the organic content increases, the maximum dry unit weight decreases and the optimum moisture content increases in compaction tests. In uniaxial compression tests under frozen conditions, the strength of the frozen specimens increased as the temperature decreased. The strength of Canada soil sample increased with higher organic matter content at low temperatures. However, the strength of frozen soil was not significantly affected by organic matter content due to the complex behavior and unfrozen water content. Thermal conductivity tests showed higher thermal conductivity in frozen conditions compared to unfrozen conditions, due to the higher thermal conductivity of ice compared to water. These findings provide essential data for geotechnical design and construction in large-scale projects such as oil sands development in cold regions. Further research is needed to explore the impact of organic matter content on different types of frozen soils.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.963-971
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• 2008

Unsaturated soil mechanics has been often used to find out a cause of failure (tensile failure) of retaining walls and hill slopes containing sandy soils. Checking shear strength is a popular method by considering suction stress developed form pore water menisci among the grains and saturated pockets of pore water under negative pressure. Linear Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion is generally adopted as a failure criterion. However, depending on relative density, stress history, and the magnitude of stress, the failure behavior of sand may not follow linear M-C frictional behavior. For stress in the large compressive ranges, say from tens to hundreds of kPa, the linear M-C criterion is an adequate representation for the shear strength behavior of sand. However, less than tens of kPa, the M-C criterion often can not be accurately represented. Depending on failure criterion, the uniaxial tensile strength is different over 100% relative error. For sand behavior under small compression regimes, therefore, such as under low or zero gravity, or under undergoing tensile failure in the crest area of hill slopes or behind retaining walls, it is important to consider the non-linear behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.47-56
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• 2007

In this research, the effects of the gravel content on the liquefaction behavior for both of the isotropically and $K_0-anisotropically$ consolidated gravel-sand mixtures are investigated. for this purpose, the cyclic triaxial tests for the specimens with the same relative density (Dr=40%) and variations of gravel content were performed. On the other hand, a series of undrained cyclic triaxial tests were carried out on the isotropically consolidated gravel-sand mixtures with the same void ratio (e=0.7) and from 0% to 30% gravel contents. Void ratios of gravel-sand mixtures with the same relative density (Dr=40%) are found to decrease significantly with the increase of the gravel content from 0% to about 70% and increase thereafter. But the void ratio of the sand matrix among the gravel skeleton increases with the increase of the gravel contents. Test results are as follows : for the isotropically consolidated specimen with 40% of relative density and low gavel contents (GC=0%, 20%, 40%), pore water pressure development and axial strain behavior during undrained cyclic loading show similar behavior to those of the loose sand because of high void ratio, and the specimens with high gravel content (70%) both pore pressure and strata behaviors are similar to those of dense sand. And the isotropically consolidated specimens with the same void ratio (e=0.7) and higher gravel contents show the same behavior of pore water pressure and axial strain as that of the loose sand, but for the lower gravel content this behavior shows similar behavior to that of dense sand. The liquefaction strength of the isotropically consolidated specimens with the same relative density increases with gravel content up to 70%, and the strength decreases with the increase of the gravel content at the same void ratio. Thus, it is confirmed that the liquefaction strength of the gravel-sand mixtures depends both on relative density and void ratio of the whole mixture rather than the relative density of the sand matrix filled among gravels. On the other hand, the behavior of pore water pressure and axial strain for the $K_0-anisotropically$ consolidated gravel-sand mixtures shows almost the same cyclic behavior of the sand with no stress reversal even with some stress reversal of the cyclic loading. Namely, even the stress reversal of about 10% of cyclic stress amplitude, the permanent strain with small cyclic strain increases rapidly with the number of cycles, and the initial liquefaction does not occur always with less than maximum pore water pressure ratio of 1.0. The liquefaction resistance increases with the gravel contents between 0% and 40%, but tends to decrease beyond 40% of gravel content. In conclusion, the cyclic behavior of gravel-sand mixtures depends on factors such as gravel content, void ratio, relative density and consolidation condition.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.35-46
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• 2015

In this study, the behavior of self-supported earth retaining wall with stabilizing piles was investigated by using a numerical study and field tests in urban excavations. This earth retaining wall can provide stable support against lateral earth pressures through its use of stabilizing piles that provide passive resistance to lateral earth pressures arising due to ground excavations. Field tests at two sites were performed to verify the performance of instrumented retaining wall with stabilizing piles. Furthermore, detailed 3D numerical analyses were conducted to provide insight into the in situ wall behavior. The 3D numerical methodology in the present study represents the behavior of the self-supported earth retaining wall with stabilizing piles. A number of 3D numerical analyses were carried out on the self-supported earth retaining wall with stabilizing piles to assess the results stemming from wide variations of influencing parameters such as the soil condition, the pile spacing, the distance between the front pile and the rear pile, and the pile embedded depth. Based on the results of the parametric study, the maximum horizontal displacement and the maximum bending moment significantly decreased when the retaining wall with stabilizing piles is used. Moreover, the horizontal displacement reduction effect of influencing parameters such as the pile spacing and the distance between the front pile and the rear pile is more sensitive in sandy soil, with a higher friction angle compared to clayey soil. In engineering practice, reducing the pile spacing and increasing the distance between the front pile and the rear pile can effectively improve the stability of the self-supported earth retaining wall with stabilizing piles.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.5-19
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• 2003

A series of centrifuge model tests were conducted to investigate the behavior of piled bridge abutments subjected to lateral soil movements induced by approach embankments. The effect of clay layer depth and the rate of embankment construction on piled bridge abutments are the main focus of this study. Tests were performed for two loading types: (1) incremental loading applied in six lifts to the final embankment height; (2) instant loading corresponding to the final embankment height applied in one lift quickly. A variety of instrumentations such as LVDTs, strain gauges, earth pressure transducers, and pore pressure transducers are installed in designed positions in order to clarify the soil-pile interaction and the short- and long-term behavior for piled bridge abutments adjacent to surcharge loads. Based on the results of a series of centrifuge model tests, the distribution of lateral flow induced by staged embankment construction has trapezoidal distribution. The maximum lateral soil pressure is about 0.75$\gamma$H at surcharge loading stage, and about 0.35 $\gamma$H at over 80% consolidated stage.