• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.413-420
• /
• 2019

The changes in earth pressure and ground settlement due to underground excavation near an existing retaining wall were studied experimentally according to the separation distance between the underground excavation and the retaining wall. In addition, this study attempted to experimentally prove that the arching phenomenon occurred during the construction of the underground space. A model tank having 120 cm in length, 160 cm in height, and 40 cm in width was manufactured to simulate underground excavation through the use of five separated base wall bodies. The variation of earth pressure on the retaining wall was measured according to the underground excavation phase through the use of 10 separated right wall bodies. The results showed that the earth pressure on the retaining wall was changed by the lowering of the first base bottom wall; however, the earth pressure was not changed significantly by the lowering of the third base bottom wall, since the third base wall had sufficient separation distance from the retaining wall. Lowering of the first base wall induced a decrease in the earth pressure in the lower part of the retaining wall; in contrast, lowering of the first base wall induced an increase in the earth pressure in the middle part of the retaining wall, proving the arching effect experimentally. It is necessary to consider the changes in earth pressure on the retaining wall in designing earth retaining structures for sections where the arching effect occurs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.57-65
• /
• 2007

Effects on the stiffness of the embankment and sandmat on the construction safety of road embankment was investigated in this study by the numerical experiments using FEM. Two points was mainly focused in this study especially. First the deformation characteristics by the change of the stiffness of sand mat and embankment was investigated by the analyzing the consolidation settlement at the center of the embankment and the lateral displacement at the toe of the embankment. And, the effect of the stiffness on the stress distribution characteristics was also investigated in this study. Furthermore, slope stability analysis was carried out to gain the safe factor by change the stiffness of the sandmat and the embankment. The objective of the study is supplying the result of the numerical experiments for the geotechnical engineers who use the FEM for the safety design of the soil structures. As a result, the stiffness of the superstructures greatly affects on the deformation characteristics both in consolidation settlement and lateral displacement. However, it can be aware that it is not dominants to the stress distribution in the aspect that the no changes in the residual excess pore water pressure. Therefore, the decision of the stiffness has to be carried out deliberately considering not only the consolidation the magnitude of the settlement and the lateral displacement, but the slope stability.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.5-18
• /
• 2006

Stone column or granular compaction pile have been used in widely during the several decades as a technique to reinforce soft cohesive soils and increase bearing capacity, accelerate consolidation settlement of the foundation soil. The bearing capacity of the granular compaction pile is governed mainly by the lateral confining pressure mobilized in the native soft soil to restrain bulging collapse of the granular pile. Therefore, the technique becomes unfeasible in soft, compressible clayey soils that do not provide sufficient lateral confinement. This paper presents the main results of numerical study of granular compaction pile which is partly mixed with lean concrete. 3D finite element analyses are performed with composite reinforced foundations by both granular compaction pile and partly mixed granular compaction pile with lean-mixed concrete. Finally, a regression formula for calculating settlement reduction coefficients is proposed in this study by using numerical analysis results and applicability of the proposed method is identified by a series of parametric study about settlement reduction coefficients.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.214-221
• /
• 2010

The transitional zone between tunnel and earthwork is one of the most vulnerable areas site for railway lines and because of differential settlement due to different stiffness of each supporting layer, it has to conducted a maintenance work constantly. In this study, it is conducted to compare the effect of reinforcement by wheel load and displacement of the sleepers after existing sleepers are replaced with the large sleepers for 20m long in-field transitional zone. Also, numerical parametric study using multi-layer elastic method has been performed to compare rail force, settlement and stresses of ballast while varying size and space of the sleeper. The field test and numerical results show that replacing the large sleepers improves about 10% of total settlement and coefficient of wheel force than conventional sleepers. Effectiveness of improvement is about 9.3%, 4%, 14.5% for rail seat force, settlement of sleepers and ballast pressure respectively with size of sleepers.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.513-521
• /
• 2020

In this paper, due to the need for cutting cement-soil group pile composite foundation under the 7-story masonry structure of Zhenghe District and the shield tunnel of Zhengzhou Metro Line 5, a field test was conducted to directly cut cement-soil single pile composite foundation with diameter Ф=500 mm. Research results showed that the load transfer mechanism of composite foundation was not changed before and after shield tunnel cut the pile, and pile body and the soil between piles was still responsible for overburden load. The construction disturbance of shield cutting pile is a complicated mechanical process. The load carried by the original pile body was affected by the disturbance effect of pile cutting construction. Also, the fraction of the load carried by the original pile body was transferred to the soil between the piles and therefore, the bearing capacity of composite foundation was not decreased. Only the fractions of the load carried by pile and the soil between piles were distributed. On-site monitoring results showed that the settlement of pressure-bearing plates produced during shield cutting stage accounted for about 7% of total settlement. After the completion of pile cutting, the settlements of bearing plates generated by shield machine during residual pile composite foundation stage and shield machine tail were far away from residual pile composite foundation stage which accounted for about 15% and 74% of total settlement, respectively. In order to reduce the impact of shield cutting pile construction on the settlement of upper composite foundation, it was recommended to take measures such as optimization of shield construction parameters, radial grouting reinforcement and "clay shock" grouting within the disturbance range of shield cutting pile construction. Before pile cutting, the pile-soil stress ratio n of composite foundation was 2.437. After the shield cut pile is completed, the soil around the lining structure is gradually consolidated and reshaped, and residual pile composite foundation reaches a new state of force balance. This was because the condensation of grouting layer could increase the resistance of remaining pile end and friction resistance of the side of the pile.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.69-77
• /
• 2007

In this study, the consolidation behavior of clayey ground improved by vertical drain method was analyzed by the finite difference method based on the three-dimensional elasto-viscous consolidation theory, which can express the behavior of the secondary consolidation without considering the distinction of the normally consolidated and overconsolidated states. And the applicability of the elasto-viscous consolidation theory was discussed by comparing with the test results obtained from the model test of ground improved by vertical drain system. From these results, it is found that the amount of the settlement when the excess pore water pressure almost dissipated in the clay ground with vertical drains became smaller than that of the one-dimensional condition, and then the amount and rate of the residual settlement at secondary consolidation process became larger than those of the one-dimensional condition. finally, the effect of soil parameter on behavior of consolidation process was investigated by the results of a series of numerical analysis for the normalized and overconsoldiated states.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.189-203
• /
• 2019

Brine leakage is a common phenomenon during construction facilitated by artificial freezing technique, threatening the stability of frozen wall due to the continual thawing of already frozen domain. This paper takes the frequently encountered soft clay in Wujiang District as the study object, and remolded specimens were prepared by mixing calcium chloride solutions at five levels of concentration. Both the deformation and pore water pressure of frozen specimens during thawing were investigated by two-stage loading tests. Three sections were noted from the changes in the strain rate of specimens during thawing at the first-stage load, i.e., instantaneous, attenuated, and quasi-stable sections. During the second-stage loading, the deformation of post-thawed soils is closely correlated with the dissipation of pore water pressure. Two characteristic indexes were obtained including thaw-settlement coefficient and critical water content. The critical water content increases positively with salt content. The higher water content of soil leads to a larger thaw-settlement coefficient, especially at higher salt contents, based on which an empirical equation was proposed and verified. The normalized pore water pressure during thawing was found to dissipate slower at higher salt contents, with a longer duration to stabilize. Three physical indexes were experimentally determined such as freezing point, heat conductivity and water permeability. The freezing point decreases at higher salt contents, especially as more water is involved, like the changes in heat conductivity. The water permeability maintains within the same order at the considered range of salt contents, like the development of the coefficient of consolidation. The variation of the pore volume distribution also accounts for this.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.129-141
• /
• 2021

The vacuum preloading method has been used in many countries for soil improvement and land reclamation. However, the treatment time is long and the improvement effect is poor for the straight-line vacuum preloading method. To alleviate such problems, a novel combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading method for shallow ground treatment is proposed in this study. Two types of traditional vacuum preloading and combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading tests were conducted and monitored in the field. In both tests, the depth of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) is 4.5m, the distance between PVDs is 0.8m, and the vacuum preloading time is 60 days. The prominent difference between the two methods is when the preloading time is 45 days, the injection pressure of 250 kPa is adopted for combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading test to inject air into the ground. Based on the monitoring data, this paper systematically studied the mechanical parameters, hydraulic conductivity, pore water pressure, settlement and subsoil bearing capacity, as determined by the vane shear strength, to demonstrate that the air-pressurizing system can improve the consolidation. The consolidation time decreased by 15 days, the pore water pressure decreased to 60.49%, and the settlement and vane shear strengths increased by 45.31% and 6.29%, respectively, at the surface. These results demonstrate the validity of the combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading method. Compared with the traditional vacuum preloading, the combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading method has better reinforcement effect. In addition, an estimation method for evaluating the average degree of consolidation and an empirical formula for evaluating the subsoil bearing capacity are proposed to assist in engineering decision making.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.265-281
• /
• 2022

A set of slurry shield test system capable of cutter cutting and slurry automatic circulation is used to investigate the deformation characteristics, the evolution characteristics of support resistance and the distribution and evolution process of earth pressure during excavating and collapsing of slurry shield tunneling in circular-gravel layer. The influence of cover-span ratio on surface subsidence, support resistance and failure mode of excavation face is also discussed. Three-dimensional numerical calculations are performed to verify the reliability of the test results. The results show that, with the decrease of the supporting force of the excavation face, the surface subsidence goes through four stages: insensitivity, slow growth, rapid growth and stability. The influence of shield excavation on the axial earth pressure of the front soil is greater than that of the vertical earth pressure. When the support resistance of the excavation face decreases to the critical value, the soil in front of the excavation face collapses. The shape of the collapse is similar to that of a bucket. The ultimate support resistance increase with the increase of the cover-span ratio, however, the angle between the bottom of the collapsed body and the direction of the tunnel excavation axis when the excavation face is damaged increase first and then becomes stable. The surface settlement value and the range of settlement trough decrease with the increase of cover-span ratio. The numerical results are basically consistent with the model test results.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.29-39
• /
• 2022

This study investigates the behavior of a circular vertical shaft wall in the absence and presence of a groundwater table. The effects of wall deflection, backfill settlement, and earth pressure distribution around the circular vertical shaft caused by sequential excavations were quantified. The vertical shaft was numerically simulated for different excavation depths of the bearing layer (weathered soil, weathered rock, soft rock) and transient and steady-state flows in the absence of a groundwater table. The backfill settlements and influential area were much larger under transient flow conditions than in steady-state flow. On the contrary, the horizontal wall deflection was much larger in steady state than in the transient state. Moreover, less settlement was induced as the excavation depth increased from weathered soil to weathered rock to the soft rock layer. Finally, the horizontal stresses under steady- and transient-state flow conditions were found to exceed Rankine's earth pressure. This effect was stronger in the deeper rock layers than in the shallow soil layers.