• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.55-66
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• 2012

To investigate the hysteresis of the suction stress in unsaturated weathered mudstone soils (CL), matric suction and volumetric water content were measured in both drying and wetting processes using Automated Soil-Water Characteristics Curve Apparatus. The drying and wetting processes in unsaturated soils were reproduced in the test; the drying process means to load matric suction to spill pore water from the soils, and the wetting process means to unload matric suction to inject pore water into the soils. Based on the measured result, Soil Water Characteristic Curve(SWCC)s were estimated by van Genuchten model (1980). SWCCs have nonlinear relationship between effective degree of saturation and matric suction. The hysteresis in SWCCs between drying and wetting processes occurred. As a result of estimating Suction Stress Characteristic Curve(SSCC) using Lu and Likos model (2006), the suction stress rapidly increased in the low level of matric suction and then increased slightly. Also, the hysteresis in SSCCs between drying and wetting processes occurred. In order to design geo-structures and check its stability considering unsaturated soil mechanics, therefore, it is more reasonable that the SSCC of drying process should be applied in the condition of rainfall infiltration and the SSCC of wetting process in the condition of evaporation or drainage.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.247-260
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• 2014

Rock masses at the site for the $2^{nd}$ step construction of the KAERI Underground Research Tunnel (KURT) are divided into six units to establish a rock mechanics model that is dependent on the geological characteristics and degree of joint development. The site primarily consists of three granitic units (G1, G2, and G3), two dykes (D1 and D3), and a fault zone of poor rock mass quality (F3). The F3 unit crosses the tunnel at the beginning of the site of $2^{nd}$ step construction. The rock masses of each unit are classified by RMR (Rock Mass Rating), Q-system, and RMi (Rock Mass Index), all based on borehole logging data. The deformation modulus, rock mass strength, cohesion, and friction angle for each unit are calculated using established empirical relationships. The representative rock mass classification and geotechnical parameters for the rock mass units are established, and a rock mechanics model for the site is proposed, which will be useful in the design and stability analysis of the $2^{nd}$ step construction of KURT.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.19-32
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• 2014

Carbonate sand of Sabkha layer in the middle east was made of deposition of shell fragments and it consisted of porous particles containing inner void. Generally, at yield stress the soil structure begins to break down, so the porewater pressure and the settlement are increased rapidly. In carbonate sand, unlike quartz sand if particle crushing happens, the inner voids are exposed and porewater pressure can be decreased under yield stress. Porewater pressure can be determined as the sum of excess porewater pressure due to increase of relative density, inner void expose of particle under particle crushing stress and rearrangement of crushed particle fragments. The porewater pressure can be negative value in case of greater amount of inner void expose, so if particle crushing is bigger, the porewater pressure value is smaller. The negative value zone of porewater pressure from triaxial test result means particle crushing effect is bigger than outer void decrease effect and the particle crushing effect dominant zone size was 1.50∼3.46% from triaxial test result of Sabkha layer.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.67-75
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• 2014

In this paper, isotropically consolidated drained triaxial compression test device installed with bender elements is used to measure stress, stain, and shear wave velocity, from which the characteristics of shear strength and Poisson'ratio are investigated. The results show that there is a unique relationship between maximum shear modulus determined from shear wave velocity and effective vertical stress at failure, which is defined as the sum of vertical and radial stresses at failure. The correlation is very useful since it is possible to predict the shear strength and internal friction angle from shear wave velocity. In addition, Poisson's ratio is determined from measured axial and volumetric strains. It is demonstrated that the range of measured Poisson's ratio is between 0.15 and 0.6, and increases with the axial strain. The ratios at axial strains smaller than 0.2% corresponds to the range recommended in design codes, which are approximately from 0.3~0.35. However, at axial strains exceeding 1%, the measured ratios are between 0.5 and 0.6. It is therefore shown that use of ratios commonly used in practice will result in pronounced underestimation at large strains.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.25-33
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• 2011

Suction buckets have been widely used for offshore structures such as anchors for floating facilities, and the foundations of offshore wind energy turbines. However, the design guidelines for suction buckets have not been clearly suggested. Therefore, this study performed the numerical analysis by using ABAQUS (2010) to evaluate bearing capacities and load-movement behaviors of the suction bucket in NC clay. For the numerical analysis, the depth ratio L/D (L=embedded length of skirt; D=diameter of a bucket) was varied from 0.25 to 1.0. The analysis results showed that the L/D ratio has a significant effect on the bearing capacity, and the vertical and horizontal capacities respectively increased by about 40% and 90%, when L/D ratio increased from 0.25 to 1.0. At the vertical loading, the bucket showed the similar failure mode with a deep foundation, so the shaft and toe resistances can be separately evaluated. At the horizontal loading, the bucket with L/D=O.25 showed the sliding failure mode and the bucket with $L/D{\geq}0.5$ showed the rotational failure mode.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.13-23
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• 2011

Bearing capacity of pile foundations in cold region is dominated by adfreeze bond strength between surrounding soil and pile perimeter. It denotes that adfreeze bond strength is the most important design parameter for foundations in cold region. Adfreeze bond strength is affected by various factors like 'soil type', 'frozen temperature', 'normal stress acting on soil/pile interface', 'loading rate', 'roughness of pile surface', etc. Several methods have already been proposed to estimate adfreeze bond strength during past 50 years. However, most methods have not considered the effect of normal stress for adfreeze bond strength. In this study, both freezing temperature and normal stress have been controlled as primary factors affecting adfreeze bond strength. A direct shear box was used to measure adfreeze bond strength between sand and aluminum under different temperature conditions. Based on the test results, the relation between shear strength of frozen sand and adfreeze bond strength have been investigated. The test results showed that both of shear strength and adfreeze bond strength tend to increase with decreasing frozen temperature or increasing confining pressure. The ratio of shear strength and adfreeze bond strength, expressed as $r_s$, decreased initially frozen section but increased at much lower frozen temperature and there were uniform intervals under the different normal stress conditions. A method for predicting adfreeze bond strength using $r_s$ has finally been proposed in this study.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.49-63
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• 2014

Bearing capacity factor $N_{\gamma}$ and shape factor were studied for rigid strip and circular footings with a rough base on sand by numerical modelling considering the effect of dilation angle. The numerical model was developed with an explicit finite difference code. Loading procedures and interpretation methods were devised in order to shorten the running time while eliminating the exaggeration of the reaction caused by the explicit scheme. Using the Mohr-Coulomb plasticity model with associated (${\psi}={\phi}$) and nonassociated (${\psi}$ < ${\phi}$) flow-rules, the bearing capacity factor $N_{\gamma}$ was evaluated for various combinations of internal friction angles and dilation angles. Bearing capacity factor decreased as the dilation angle was reduced from the associated condition. An equation applicable to typical sands was proposed to evaluate the relative bearing capacity for the nonassociated condition compared to the associated condition on which most bearing capacity factor equations are based. The shape factor for the circular footing varied substantially when the plane-strain effect was taken into account for the strip footing. The numerical results of this study showed closer trends with the previous experimental results when the internal friction angle was increased for the strip footing. Discussions are made on the reason that previous equations for the shape factor give different results and recommendations are made for the appropriate design shape factor.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.119-133
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• 2020

Underground utility tunnel, the most representative cut and cover structure, is subjected to seismic force by displacement of the surrounding soil. In 2020, Korea Infrastructure Safety Corporation has published "Seismic Performance Evaluation Guideline for Existing Utility Tunnel." This paper introduces two seismic evaluation methods, RDM (Response Displacement Method) and RHA (Response History Analysis) adopted in the guide and compares the methods for an example of an existing utility tunnel. The test tunnel had been constructed in 1988 and seismic design was not considered. RDM is performed by single and double cosine methods based on the velocity response spectrum at the base rock. RHA is performed by finite difference analysis that is able to consider nonlinear behavior of soil and structure together in two-dimensional plane strain condition. The utility tunnel shows elastic behavior for RDM, but shows plastic hinge for RHA under the collapse prevention level earthquake.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.149-156
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• 2020

Permeation grouting effectively enhances soil strength and decreases permeability of soil; however, the flow of grout is heavily affected by anisotropy of hydraulic conductivity in layers. Therefore, this study investigates the effect of permeability anisotropy on the effective radius of horizontal permeation grout using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). We modeled the horizontal permeation grout flow as a two-phase viscous fluid flow in porous media, and the model incorporated the chemical diffusion and the viscosity variation due to hardening. The numerical simulation reveals that the permeability anisotropy shapes the grout bulb to be elliptic and the dissolution-driven diffusion causes a gradual change in grout pore saturation at the edge of the grout bulb. For the grout pore saturations of 10%, 50% and 90%, the horizontal and vertical radii of grout bulb are estimated when the horizontal-to-vertical permeability ratio varies from 0.01 to 100, and the predictive model equations are suggested. This result contributes to more efficient design of injection strategy in formation layers with permeability anisotropy.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.5-14
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• 2016

The use of geothermal energy has increased for economically and environmentally friendly utilization, and a geothermal heat pump (GSHP) system for space heating and cooling is being used widely. As ground thermal properties such as ground thermal conductivity and ground thermal diffusivity are substantial parameters in the design of geothermal heat pump system, ground thermal conductivity should be obtained from in-situ thermal response test (TRT). This paper presents an experimental study of ground thermal properties of U and 2U type ground heat exchangers (GHEs) measured by TRTs. The U and 2U type GHEs were installed in a partially saturated dredged soil deposit, and TRTs were conducted for 48 hours. A method to derive the thermal diffusivity as well as thermal conductivity was proposed from a non-linear regression analysis. In addition, remolded soil samples from different layers were collected from the field, and soil specimens were reconstructed according to the field ground condition. Then equivalent ground thermal conductivity and ground thermal diffusivity were calculated from the lab test results and they were compared with the in-situ TRT results.