• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.407-415
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• 2019

A controlled low strength material (CLSM) is a highly flowable cementitious material used for trench backfilling. However, when applying vertical loads to backfilled trenches, shear failure or differential settlement may occur at the interface between the CLSM and natural soil. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the characteristics of the interface friction between the CLSM and soils based on curing time, gradation, and normal stress. The CLSM is composed of fly ash, calcium sulfoaluminate cement, sand, silt, water, and an accelerator. To investigate the engineering properties of the CLSM, flow and unconfined compressive strength tests are carried out. Poorly graded and well-graded sands are selected as the in-situ soil adjacent to the CLSM. The direct shear tests of the CLSM and soils are carried out under three normal stresses for four different curing times. The test results show that the shear strengths obtained within 1 day are higher than those obtained after 1 day. As the curing time increases, the maximum dilation of the poorly graded sand-CLSM specimens under lower normal stresses also generally increases. The maximum contraction increases with increasing normal stress, but it decreases with increasing curing time. The shear strengths of the well-graded sand-CLSM interface are greater than those of the poorly graded sand-CLSM interface. Moreover, the friction angle for the CLSM-soil interface decreases with increasing curing time, and the friction angles of the well-graded sand-CLSM interface are greater than those of the poorly graded sand-CLSM interface. The results suggest that the CLSM may be effectively used for trench backfilling owing to a better understanding of the interface shear strength and behavior between the CLSM and soils.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.90-94
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• 2013

Cement or lime is generally used to improve the strength of soil. However, bacteria were utilized to produce cementation of loose soils in this study. The microo rganism called Bacillus, and $CaCl_2$ was introduced into loose sand and soft silt and $CaCO_3$ in the voids of soil particles were produced, leading to cementation of soil particles. In this study, loose sand and soft silt typically encountered in Korea were bio-treated with 3 types of bacteria concentration. The cementation (or calcite precipitation) in the soil particles induced by the high concentration bacteria treatment was investigated at 7 days after curing. Based on the results of Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) tests and EDX analyses, high concentration bacteria treatment for loose sand was observed to produce noticeable amount of $CaCO_3$, implying a significant cementation of soil particles. It was observed that higher calcium carbonate depositions were observed in poorly graded distribution as compared to well graded distribution. In addition, effectiveness of biogrouting has also been found to be feasible by bio-treatment without any cementing agent.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.165-177
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• 2024

Liquefaction phenomenon refers to a phenomenon in which excess pore water pressure occurs when a dynamic load such as an earthquake is rapidly applied to a loose sandy soil ground where the ground is saturated, and the ground loses effective stress and becomes liquid. The laboratory repetition test for liquefaction evaluation can be performed through a repeated triaxial compression test and a repeated shear test. In this regard, this study attempted to evaluate the effects of the relative density of sand on the liquefaction resistance strength according to particle size distribution using repeated triaxial compression tests, and additional experimental verification using numerical analysis was conducted to overcome the limitations of experimental equipment. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that the liquefaction resistance strength increased as the relative density increased regardless of the classification of soil, and the liquefaction resistance strength of the SP sample close to SW was quite high. As a result of numerical analysis, it was confirmed that the liquefaction resistance strength increased as the confining pressure increased under the same relative density, and the liquefaction resistance strength did not decrease below a certain limit even though the confining pressure was significantly reduced at a relatively low relative density. This is judged to be due to a change in confining pressure according to the depth of the ground. As a result of analyzing the liquefaction resistance strength according to the frequency range, it was confirmed that there was no significant difference from the laboratory experiment results in the basic range of 0.1 to 1.0 Hz.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.03b
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• pp.331-337
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• 2000

When microorganism is injected into porous medium such as soils, biomass retained in the pore. Bacteria within these microcolonies produced large amounts of exopolysaccharides and formed a plugging biofilm. Soil pore size and shape are varied from the initial condition as a result of biofilm formation, which make hydraulic conductivity reduced and friction rate between soil aggregates increased. In this research, hydraulic conductivity reduction was measured after microorganism are inoculated and cultured with synthetic substrate and nutrient. Also, pore sand of before and after biofilm formation compared with scanning electron microscopy. Hydraulic conductivity of Sand and Poorly Graded Sand was decreased approximately 1/10∼1/100 after biomass inoculation and cultivation. Biofilm attached on soil aggregates is resistant to acidic or basic condition.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.475-487
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• 2023

We surveyed the distribution of soil layers on Dongdo and Seodo of Dokdo and measured the physical properties of the soils. To investigate the distribution of soil layers, the soil depth was measured directly in accessible locations, and visual observations of inaccessible locations were carried out using drones and boats. Soil depths ranged from 3 to 50 cm, and most soil layers had depths of 10~20 cm. Based on these results, a map of the soil layer was drawn using 5 cm intervals for soil depth. To analyze the soil characteristics of Dokdo, soil samples were collected from 13 locations on Dongdo and 13 locations on Seodo, in consideration of various geological settings. According to the results of grain size distribution tests, sand contents were >75%, and soil from Seodo contained more gravel-sized particles than that from Dongdo. Using the unified soil classification system (USCS) and textural classification chart of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), most of the soil samples from Dokdo are classified as sand, and some are classified as loamy or clayey sand. In addition, well-graded loamy or clayey sands are more common in Dongdo, and poorly graded sands with gravel are more common in Seodo. These results are expected to be important for studying soil characteristics on Dokdo.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.211-218
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• 2022

This study characterizes Proctor and geophysical properties in a broad range of grading and fines contents. The results show that soil index properties such as uniformity and fines plasticity control the optimum water content and peak dry unit trends, as well as elastic wave velocity. The capillary pressure at a degree of saturation less than S = 20% plays a critical role in determining the shear wave velocity for poorly graded sandy soils. The reduction in electrical resistivity with a higher water content becomes pronounced as the water phase is connected A parallel set of compaction and geophysical properties of sand-kaolinite mixtures reveal that the threshold boundaries computed from soil index properties adequately capture the transitions from sand-controlled to kaolinite-controlled behavior. In the transitional fines fraction zone between F_F ≈ 20 and 40%, either sand or kaolinite or both sand and kaolinite could dominate the geophysical properties and all other properties associated with soil compaction behavior. Overall, the compaction and geophysical data gathered in this study can be used to gain a first-order approximation of the degree of compaction in the field and produce degree of compaction maps as a function of water content and fines fraction.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 1998

The environmental problem of the rural area has been accelerated in soil as well as water. Soil contamination is usually caused by improper operation of landfills, abandoned mine fields, accidental spills, and illegal dumpings. Once soil contamination is initiated, pollutants migrate and may cause groundwater contamination which takes much effort for remediation. Early detection, therefore, is important to prevent further contamination. Electrical resistivity method was used to detect soil contamination, but it was not effective to the heterogeneous condition. Static cone penetrometer test (CPT) has been used widely to investigate geotechnical properties of the underground. In this study, electrical resistivity method and CPT are combined to improve the applicability of it. The pilot test was performed to examine the variation of electrical resistivity with different soil minerals and pore fluid characteristics. Soil samples used were poorly graded sand, silty sandy soil, and weathered granite soil. For all the cases, electrical resistivity decreased with increasing of moisture content. Soil mineral also affected the electrical resistivity significantly. Above all, leachate addition in the pore fluid was very sensitive and caused decreasing of electrical resistivity markedly. It implies that electrical resistivity method can be applied to investigate pollutant plume effectively. This is specially sure when the sensors contact the contaminated soils directly. The CPT method involves cone penetration to the ground, therefore, underground contamination around the cone could be investigated effectively even for heterogeneous condition as it penetrates if electrical resistivity sensors are attached on the cone.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.584-595
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• 2018

This study conducted direct shear test on about 290 sorts of materials such as sandy soil, clayey soil and gravely soil to present proper standard on shear strength of soil. Shear strength of soil in large scale tends to show that angle of internal friction increases as sand contents grow and it ranges $23.5^{\circ}{\sim}34.9^{\circ}C$ with cohesion of 2.0 kPa~15.7 kPa. Elastic modulus was visibly distinct by load, and which increased approximately 80% as vertical load grows. Angle of internal friction arranging $15.0^{\circ}{\sim}28.6^{\circ}$ on clayey soil decreased as clay contents rises and cohesion increase in regular scale. Elastic modulus tends to increase initial elastic modulus with almost same growing rate. While angle of internal friction on gravely soil indicates $29.9^{\circ}{\sim}36.7^{\circ}$ which hardly shows distinctive features. According to test in detail, cohesion of SW (well-graded sand), SP (poorly-graded sand), SC (clayey sand) and SM (silty sand) indicates value by 94%, 78% and 59% comparing to SC, SW and SP respectively. Angle of internal friction of ML (low-liquid limit silt) and CL (low-liquid limit clay) appears almost same features, and MH (high-liquid limit silt) despite of 88% value of ML. Cohesion among them varies with similar growing rate.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.695-710
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• 2018

Formation of a soil plug in an open-ended pile is a very important factor in determining the pile behavior both during driving and during static loading. The degree of soil plugging can be represented by the incremental filling ratio (IFR) which is defined as the change in the plug length to the change of the pile embedment length. The experimental tests carried out in this research contain 138 tests that are divided as follows: 36 tests for single pile, 36 tests for pile group ($2{\times}1$), 36 tests for pile group ($2{\times}2$) and 30 pile group ($2{\times}3$). All tubular piles were tested using the poorly graded sand from the city of Karbala in Iraq. The sand was prepared at three different densities using a raining technique. Different parameters are considered such as method of installation, relative density, removal of soil plug with respect to length of plug and pile length to diameter ratio. The soil plug is removed using a new device which is manufactured to remove the soil column inside open pipe piles group installed using driving and pressing device. The principle of soil plug removal depends on suction of sand inside the pile. It was concluded that the incremental filling ratio (IFR) is changed with the changing of soil state and method of installation. For driven pipe pile group, the average IFR for piles in loose is 18% and 19.5% for L/D=12 and 15, respectively, while the average of IFR for driven piles in dense sand is 30% and 20% for L/D=12 and L/D=15 respectively. For pressed method of pile installation, the average IFR for group is zero for loose and medium sand and about 5% for dense sand. The group capacity increases with the increase of IFR. For driven pile with length of 450 mm, the average IFR % is about 30.3% in dense sand, 14% in medium and 18.3% for loose sand while when the length of pile is 300 mm, the percentage equals to 20%, 17% and 19.5%, respectively.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.81-95
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• 2019

Due to the importance of soil reinforcement using geotextiles in geotechnical engineering, study and investigation into long-term performance, design life and survivability of geotextiles, especially due to installation damage are necessary and will affect their economy. During installation, spreading and compaction of backfill materials, geotextiles may encounter severe stresses which can be higher than they will experience in-service. This paper aims to investigate the installation damage of geotextiles, in order to obtain a good approach to the estimation of the material's strength reduction factor. A series of full-scale tests were conducted to simulate the installation process. The study includes four deliberately poorly-graded backfill materials, two kinds of subgrades with different CBR values, three nonwoven needle-punched geotextiles of classes 1, 2 and 3 (according to AASHTO M288-08) and two different relative densities for the backfill materials. Also, to determine how well or how poorly the geotextiles tolerated the imposed construction stresses, grab tensile tests and visual inspections were carried out on geotextile specimens (before and after installation). Visual inspections of the geotextiles revealed sedimentation of fine-grained particles in all specimens and local stretching of geotextiles by larger soil particles which exerted some damage. A regression model is proposed to reliably predict the installation damage reduction factor. The results, obtained by grab tensile tests and via the proposed models, indicated that the strength reduction factor due to installation damage was reduced as the median grain size and relative density of the backfill decreases, stress transferred to the geotextiles' level decreases and as the as-received grab tensile strength of geotextile and the subgrades' CBR value increase.