• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.27-36
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• 2014

Due to the latitudinal location of Korea, the seasonally frozen ground has been focused on as research topics such as the frost heaving under the asphalt road rather than the permafrost ground. However, the recent construction of the second Korean Antarctic research station, the Jangbogo station and the participation on the development of the natural gas pipeline in Russia arouse the research interests on the behavior of the permafrost ground. At the design process of the geotechnical structures on the permafrost ground, the evaluation of the creep characteristics of the frozen soil is very crucial. Since the domestic specification on the frozen soil testing does not exist currently, it is necessary to evaluate the creep characteristics of frozen soils systematically with regard to the affecting factors. Therefore, the creep characteristics of the frozen specimens of dense Jumoonjin sand were evaluated under various loads at -5 and $-10^{\circ}C$. Based on the test results, as the load became close to the strength and the temperature became lower, the duration of the secondary creep became shorter and more distinct tertiary creep responses were observed.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.347-362
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• 2019

Underground excavation using TBM machines has been increasing to reduce complaints caused by noise, vibration, and traffic congestion resulted from the urban underground construction in Korea. However, TBM excavation design and construction still need improvement because those are based on standards of the technologically advanced countries (e.g., Japan, Germany) that do not consider geological environment in Korea at all. Above all, although TBM performance is a main factor determining the TBM machine type, duration and cost of the construction, it is estimated by only using UCS (uniaxial compressive strength) as the ground parameters and it often does not match the actual field conditions. This study was carried out as part of efforts to predict penetration rate suitable for Korean ground conditions. The effective parameters were defined through the correlation analysis between the penetration rate and the geotechnical parameters or TBM performance parameters. The effective parameters were then used as variables of the multiple regression analysis to derive a regression model for predicting TBM penetration rate. As a result, the regression model was estimated by UCS and joint spacing and showed a good agreement with field penetration rate measured during TBM excavation. However, when this model was applied to another site in Korea, the prediction accuracy was slightly reduced. Therefore, in order to overcome the limitation of the regression model, further studies are required to obtain a generalized prediction model which is not restricted by the field conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.47-59
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• 2023

In this research, laboratory tests were conducted on clayey sand (SC) to analyze its physical properties, compaction/permeability characteristics, and stress-strain behavior. The main objective was to determine the transitional fines content at which the mechanical properties of sand transition to those of clay, resulting in a change in the geotechnical behavior of the material. Additionally, to assess the practical applicability of SC soil, field data from a soft ground improvement site with significant settlement issues were collected. The settlement characteristics derived from laboratory tests and numerical simulations were then compared and analyzed in relation to the actual settlement data obtained from the field, aiming to evaluate the suitability of the SC soil as a compaction target layer. The laboratory tests and compaction analysis showed that the SC soil exhibited a distinct change in mechanical properties, shifting from sandy behavior to clayey behavior when the fines content exceeded 25%. This transition in mechanical behavior was found to be closely correlated with the content of clay particles within the material. Through numerical simulations of the soft ground site, it was verified that the use of clayey sand with a fines content exceeding the transitional level as a compaction target layer resulted in settlements that closely aligned with the measured settlements, with an average agreement of 91.2%. Based on these findings, it is deemed advisable to incorporate clayey sand with a fines content exceeding the transitional level as part of the compaction target layer in the design of soft ground improvements.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1C
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• pp.45-51
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• 2010

In urban area, design and construction of civil engineering structures such as subway tunnel, underground space and deep excavation is impeded by unreliable site investigation. Variety of embedded objects, electric noises and traffic vibrations degrades the quality of site investigation, whatever the site-investigation technique would be. In this research, a preliminary research was performed to develop a dedicated site investigation technique for urban geotechnical sites, which can overcome the limitations of urban sites. HiRAS (Hybrid Integration of Surface Waves and Resistivity) technique which is the first outcome of the preliminary research was proposed in this paper. The technique combines surface wave as well as electrical resistivity. CapSASW method for surface-wave technique and PDC-R technique for electrical resistivity survey were incorporated to develop HiRAS technique. CapSASW method is a good method for evaluating material stiffness and PDC-R technique is a reliable method for determination of underground stratification even in a site with electrical noise. For the inversion analysis of HiRAS techniuqe, a site-specific relationship between stress-wave velocity and resistivity was employed. As for outgrowth of this research, the 2-D distribution of Poisson's ratio could be also determined.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.113-119
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• 2023

Most infrastructure structures were completed during periods of economic growth. The number of infrastructure structures reaching their lifespan is increasing, and the proportion of old structures is gradually increasing. The functions and performance of these structures at the time of design may deteriorate and may even lead to safety accidents. To prevent this repercussion, accurate inspection and appropriate repair are requisite. To this end, demand is increasing for computer vision and deep learning technology to accurately detect even minute cracks. However, deep learning algorithms require a large number of training data. In particular, label images indicating the location of cracks in the image are required. To secure a large number of those label images, a lot of labor and time are consumed. To reduce these costs as well as increase detection accuracy, this study proposed a learning structure based on mean teacher method. This learning structure was trained on a dataset of 900 labeled image dataset and 3000 unlabeled image dataset. The crack detection network model was evaluated on over 300 labeled image dataset, and the detection accuracy recorded a mean intersection over union of 89.23% and an F1 score of 89.12%. Through this experiment, it was confirmed that detection performance was improved compared to supervised learning. It is expected that this proposed method will be used in the future to reduce the cost required to secure label images.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.479-493
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• 2023

The need for safety management has arisen due to the increasing number of years of operated underground structures, such as tunnels and utility tunnels, and accidents caused by those aging infrastructures. However, in the case of privately managed underground utility ducts, there is a lack of detailed guidelines for facility safety and maintenance, resulting in inadequate safety management. Furthermore, the absence of basic design information and the limited space for safety assessments make applying currently used non-destructive testing methods challenging. Therefore, this study suggests non-destructive inspection methods using ultrasonic and impact-echo techniques to assess the quality of underground structures. Thickness, presence of rebars, depth of rebars, and the presence and depth of internal defects are assessed to provide fundamental data for the safety assessment of box-type general underground structures. To validate the proposed methodology, different conditions of concrete specimens are designed and cured to simulate actual field conditions. Applying ultrasonic and impact signals and collecting data through multi-channel accelerometers determine the thickness of the simulated specimens, the depth of embedded rebar, and the extent of defects. The predicted results are well agreed upon compared with actual measurements. The proposed methodology is expected to contribute to developing safety diagnostic methods applicable to general underground structures in practical field conditions.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.415-427
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• 2024

This study undertook a quantitative analysis of the distribution of fractures in deep drillcore from a Precambrian metamorphic complex on the north face of Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon-do, Korea. The fracture distribution with depth, inclination of fractures, and grain size in the fracture zone were measured and statistical techniques applied to derive probability distributions of fracture intervals. Analysis of the inclination angles of fracture planes showed that sub-horizontal fractures are dominant, and fracture spacing is mainly ≤0.5 m, with a median of 0.09 m, first quartile of 0.04 m, and third quartile of 0.18 m, indicating very dense fracture development. Statistical analysis of joint properties was undertaken with fitting using five probability density functions (double Weibull, exponential, generalized logistic, gamma, and lognormal). The lognormal distribution (sum of squared errors, SSE = 2.80) yielded the best fit based on the sum of residual squares. Quantitative characterization of the fracture characteristics of deep bedrock in the Hongcheon area is important for various geotechnical applications such as groundwater flow modeling, slope stability assessment, and underground structure design. In future studies, it will be necessary to combine in situ stress measurements and geophysical surveys to determine the relationship between fracture development and the local stress field.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1991.10a
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• pp.87-102
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• 1991

It has been reported that the failure of Carsington Dam in Eng1and occured due to the existence of a thin yellow clay layer which was not identified during the design work, and due to pre-existing shears of the clay layer. The slope stability analyses during the design work, which utilized traditional circular arc type failure method and neglected the existence of the clay layer, showed a safety factor of 1.4. However, the post-failure analyses which utilized translational failure mode considering the clay layer and the pre-existing shear deformation revealed the reduction of safety factor to unity. The post-failure analysis assumed 10。 inclination of the horizontal forces onto each slice based on the results of finite element analyses. In this paper, Bishop's simplified method, Janbu method, and Morgenstern-Price method were used for the comparison of both circular and translational failure analysis methods. The effects of the pre-existing shears and subsquent movement were also considered by varying the soil strength parameters and the pore pressure ratio according to the given soi1 parameters. The results showed factor of safefy 1.387 by Bishop's simplified method(STABL) which assumed circular arc failure surface and disregarding yellow clay layer and pre-failure material properties. Also the results showed factor of safety 1.093 by Janbu method(STABL) and 0.969 by Morgenstern-Price method(MALE) which assumed wedge failure surface and considerd yellow clay layer using post failure material properties. In addition, dam behavior was simulated by Cam-Clay model FEM program. The effects of pore pressure changes with loading and consolidation, and strength reduction near or at failure were also considered based on properly assumed stress-strain relationship and pore pressure characteristics. The results showed that the failure was initiated at the yellow clay layer and propagated through other zones by showing that stress and displacement were concentrated at the yel1ow clay layer.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.203-218
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• 2010

The site categorization and corresponding site amplification factors in the current Korean seismic design guideline are based on provisions for the western United States (US), although the site effects resulting in the amplification of earthquake ground motions are directly dependent on the regional and local site characteristic conditions. In these seismic codes, two amplification factors called site coefficients, $F_a$ and $F_v$, for the short-period band and midperiod band, respectively, are listed according to a criterion, mean shear wave velocity ($V_S$) to a depth of 30 m, into five classes composed of A to E. To suggest a site classification system reflecting Korean site conditions, in this study, systematic site characterization was carried out at four regional areas, Gyeongju, Hongsung, Haemi and Sacheon, to obtain the $V_S$ profiles from surface to bedrock in field and the non-linear soil properties in laboratory. The soil deposits in Korea, which were shallower and stiffer than those in the western US, were examined, and thus the site period in Korea was distributed in the low and narrow band comparing with those in western US. Based on the geotechnical characteristic properties obtained in the field and laboratory, various site-specific seismic response analyses were conducted for total 75 sites by adopting both equivalent-linear and non-linear methods. The analysis results showed that the site coefficients specified in the current Korean provision underestimate the ground motion in the short-period range and overestimate in the mid-period range. These differences can be explained by the differences in the local site characteristics including the depth to bedrock between Korea and western US. Based on the analysis results in this study and the prior research results for the Korean peninsula, new site classification system was developed by introducing the site period as representative criterion and the mean $V_S$ to a depth of shallower than 30 m as additional criterion, to reliably determine the ground motions and the corresponding design spectra taking into account the regional site characteristics in Korea.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.529-541
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• 2009

Hydrochemical, stable isotopic ($\delta^{18}O$ and dD) and noble gas isotopic analyses of seven hot spring water samples, eleven groundwater samples and six surface water samples collected from the Icheon and Pocheon area were carried out to find out hydrochemical characteristics, and to interpret the source of noble gases and the geochemical evolution of the hot spring waters. The hot spring waters show low temperature type ranging from 21.5 to $31.4^{\circ}C$ and the pH value between 6.69 and 9.21. Electrical conductivity of hot spring waters has the range from 310 to $735\;{\mu}S/cm$. Whereas the hot spring water in the Icheon area shows the geochemical characteristics of neutral pH, the $Ca-HCO_3$(or $Ca(Na)-HCO_3$) chemical type and a high uranium content, the hot spring water in the Pocheon area shows the characteristics of alkaline pH, the $Na-HCO_3$ chemical type and a high fluorine content. These characteristics indicate that the hot spring water in the Icheon area is under the early stage in the geochemical evolution, and that the hot spring water in the Pocheon area has been geochemically evolved. The $\delta^{18}O$ and ${\delta}D$ values of hot spring waters show the range of $-10.1{\sim}-8.69%o$ and from $-72.2{\sim}-60.8%o$, respectively, and these values supply the information of the recharge area of hot spring waters. The $^3He/^4He$ ratios of the hot spring waters range from $0.09\;{\times}\;10^{-6}$ to $0.65\;{\times}\;10^{-6}$ which are plotted above the mixing line between air and crustal components. Whereas the helium gas in the Icheon hot spring water was mainly provided from the atmospheric source mixing with the mantle(or magma) origin, the origin of helium gas in the Pocheon hot spring water shows a dominant crustal source. $^{40}Ar/^{36}Ar$ ratios of hot spring water are in the range of an atmosphere source.