• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.47-60
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• 2023

At present, in South Korea, there is a growing concern regarding solar power facilities installed on slopes because they are prone to damage caused by natural disasters, such as heavy rainfall and typhoons. Each year, these solar power facilities experience soil erosion due to heavy rainfall and foundation damage or detachment caused by strong wind loads. Despite these challenges, the interaction between the ground and structures is not adequately considered. Current analyses primarily focus on the structural stability under external loads; the overall facility site's stability-excluding the solar structures-in relation to its surrounding slopes is neglected. Therefore, in this study, we use finite-difference method analysis to simulate the behavior of the foundation and piles to assess changes in lateral displacement and bending stress in piles, as well as the safety factor of sloped terrains, in response to various influencing factors, such as pile diameter, spacing between piles, pile-embedding depth, wind loads, and dry and wet conditions. The analysis results indicate that pile spacing and wind loads significantly influence lateral displacement and bending stress in piles, whereas pile-embedding depth strongly influences the safety factor of sloped terrains. Moreover, we found that under certain conditions, the design criteria in domestic standards may not be met.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.47-58
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• 2014

This study explores methods for modeling the foundation-seabed interaction needed for the load analysis of an offshore wind energy system. It comprises the comparison study of foundation design load analyses for NREL 5 MW turbine according to various soil-foundation interaction models by conducting the load analysis with GH-Bladed, analysis software for offshore wind energy systems. Furthermore, the results of the aforementioned load analysis were applied to foundation analysis software called L-Pile to conduct a safety review of the foundation cross-section design. Differences in the cross-section of a monopile foundation were observed based on the results of the fixed model, winkler spring and coupled spring models, and the analysis of design load cases, including DLC 1.3, DLC 6.1a, and DLC 6.2a. Consequently, under all design load conditions, the diameter and thickness of the monopile foundation cross-section were found to be 7 m and 80 mm, respectively, using the fixed and coupled spring models; the results of the analysis conducted using the winkler spring model showed that the diameter and thickness of the monopile foundation cross-section were 5 m and 60 mm, respectively. The study found that the soil-foundation interaction modeling method had a significant impact on the load analysis results, which determined the cross-section of a foundation. Based on this study, it is anticipated that designing an offshore wind energy system foundation taking the above impact into account would reduce the possibility of a conservative or unconservative design of the foundation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.430-440
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• 2009

Top-Base Foundation(TBF) was developed in Japan as a factory made concrete product. It is actively used in 6,000 sites by the end of 1980s in Japan and applied for a domestic patent in 1985. It is a shallow foundation whose effectiveness is proven by many relevant researchers and engineers. TBF was introduced to Korea in 1991 and has been applied mainly to architectural structures to date. Currently, the effectiveness in bearing capacity and settlement of TBF is being underestimated for civil engineering structures. Characteristics of Top-Base Foundation studied in Japan and Korea is known as follows: (1) as concrete part and crushed stone behave together, they perform the function of rigid mat; (2) the conical part and pile part of TBF disperses load by interaction with the crushed stone; (3) by preventing lateral strain and differential settlement on lower ground, it improves bearing capacity and constrains settlement at the same time. In Korea, it is used mostly in clayey soft grounds. The formula of bearing capacity and settlement of TBF suggested in Japan give the values of the underestimated. bearing capacity while its settlement is overestimated in comparison with the values measured from the field loading test. Therefore, in this study, the stress delivery mechanism of Top-Base Foundation developed in Japan and Floating Top Base developed in Korea is investigated through numerical analysis and laboratory model test.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.359-379
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• 2020

Due to susceptibility of bridges in the past earthquakes, vulnerability assessment and strengthening of bridges has gained a particular significance. The objective of the present study is to employ an analytical method for the development of fragility curves, as well as to investigate the effect of strengthening on the RC box-girder bridges. Since fragility curves are used for pre-and post-earthquake planning, this paper has attempted to adopt the most reliable modeling assumptions in order to increase the reliability. Furthermore, to acknowledge the interaction of soil, abutment and pile, the effect of different strengthening methods, such as using steel jacketing and FRP layers, the effect of increase in the bridge pier diameter, and the effect of vertical component of earthquake on the vulnerability of bridges in this study, a three-span RC box-girder bridge was modeled in 9 different cases. Nonlinear dynamic analyses were carried out on the studied bridges subjected to 100 ground motion records via OpenSEES platform. Therefore, the fragility curves were plotted and compared in the four damage states. The results revealed that once the interaction of soil and abutment and the vertical component of the earthquake are accounted for in the calculations, the median fragility is reduced, implying that the bridge becomes more vulnerable. It was also confirmed that steel jackets and FRP layers are suitable methods for pier strengthening which reduces the vulnerability of the bridge.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2021

Background: Abandoned coal piles after the closure of mines have a potential negative influence on the environment, such as soil acidification and heavy metal contamination. Therefore, revegetation by efficient species is required. For this, we wanted to identify the role of Silene acaulis in the succession of coal piles as a pioneer and a nurse plant. S. acaulis is a well-studied cushion plant living in the Arctic and alpine environments in the northern hemisphere. It has a highly compact cushion-like form and hosts more plant species under its canopy by ameliorating stressful microhabitats. In this research, we surveyed vegetation cover on open plots and co-occurring species within S. acaulis cushions in coal piles with different slope aspects and a control site where no coal was found. The plant cover and the similarity of communities among sites were compared. Also, the interaction effects of S. acaulis were assessed by rarefaction curves. Results: S. acaulis was a dominant species with the highest cover (6.7%) on the coal piles and occurred with other well-known pioneer species. Plant communities on the coal piles were significantly different from the control site. We found that the pioneer species S. acaulis showed facilitation, neutral, and competition effect in the north-east facing slope, the south-east facing slope, and the flat ground, respectively. This result was consistent with the stress gradient hypothesis because the facilitation only occurred on the north-east facing slope, which was the most stressed condition, although all the interactions observed were not statistically significant. Conclusions: S. acaulis was a dominant pioneer plant in the succession of coal piles. The interaction effect of S. acaulis on other species depended on the slope and its direction on the coal piles. Overall, it plays an important role in the succession of coal piles in the High Arctic, Svalbard.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.13-23
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• 2022

The ground-structure interaction of the bridge foundation has been pointed out as a major factor influencing the behavior of the bridge during earthquakes. In this study, the effect of characteristics of ground and bridge foundation on the earthquake vulnerability is investigated. From the pseudo-static analysis, it is confirmed that non-linearity becomes lesser and horizontal load becomes greater when surcharge is considered. It is also found that as the ground worsens and the size of foundation decreases, horizontal load reduces. To derive reasonable structural model for bridge foundation, fragility curve is obtained considering four conditions (fixed condition, equivalent linear condition, non-linear without surchage condition, non-linear with surcharge condition) and compared. Seismic analysis is performed on single pier with Opensees. From the earthquake vulnerability analysis, it is found that shallow foundation can be assumed as fixed condition. In conservative approach, stiffness of spring can be obtained based on Korean highway bridge design code for pile foundation which can consider the ground condition.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.69-72
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• 2008

The so-called Pier-Shafts system which consists of the continuous column and shaft is often used to support the highway bridge structure because of advantages in easy construction and low cost. In the earthquake region, the Pier-Shafts system undergoes large displacements and represents a nonlinear behavior under the lateral seismic loading. The soil-pile interaction should be considered for more accurate analysis of the Pier-Shafts system. In this study, a transverse response of a reinforced concrete Pier-Shafts system inside multi-layered soil medium is predicted using a finite element program which adopts an elasto-plastic interface model for the interface behavior between the shaft and the soil. Then, seismic analysis is performed to evaluate the performance of Pier-Shafts system under strong ground motion and their results are verified with experimental data.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.58-63
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• 2013

LNG(Liquefied Natural Gas) has been considered as the green energy. Thus, the demand of natural gas is keep increasing around the world, and various studies are actively under progress about the LNG storage tank. To calculate the seismic forces of actual LNG storage tank, FEM model has to include inner tank, outer tank, pile and soil to implement the interaction between structure and ground. So, this paper is represent the study about inner tank model of three cases using Malhotra method in EN 1998-4(European Standard). The results of calculation were compared, and the most suitable to inner tank model was suggested.