• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.37-49
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• 2021

Micropiles are widely used in construction field to enhance bearing capacity and reduce settlement of existing foundation. It has various benefits such as low construction expense, simple installation process, and small construction equipment. Recently, new microple equipped with the base expansion structure at the end has been developed to improve the foundation bearing capacity. The improvement of load capacity can be conceptually achieved by expanding the base expansion structure when a load is applied to the micropile. However, the expansion mechanism of the base expansion structure and the improvement of load capacity of the micropile were not yet experimentally validated. Therefore, in this study, a series of centrifuge model tests was performed to evaluate the effect of the base expansion structure on the improvement of load capacity. Two types of soil, sand and weathered rock, were prepared and the loading tests were performed using the real micropile with the base expansion structure. During the tests, the earth pressures surrounding the base expansion structure were monitored. As a result, when a load of 30 kN was applied to the micropile, the increase in the ratio of the horizontal to vertical pressure increment (∆σ_h/∆σ_𝜈) ranged from 0.4 to 0.58 in sand and ∆σ_h/∆σ_𝜈 = 0.19 in weathered rock, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that the increase in the horizontal earth pressure adjacent to the base expansion structure will improve the bearing capacity of the micropile.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2010

It is important to calculate the natural frequency of a piled structure in the design stage in order to prevent resonance-induced damage to the pile foundation and analyze the dynamic behavior of the piled structure during an earthquake. In this paper, a simple but relatively accurate method employing a mass-spring model is presented for the evaluation of the natural frequency of a pile-soil system. Greatly influencing the calculation of the natural frequency of a piled structure, the spring stiffness between a pile and soil was evaluated by using the coefficient of subgrade reaction, the p-y curve, and the subsoil elastic modulus. The resulting natural frequencies were compared with those of 1-g shaking table tests. The comparison showed that the natural frequency of the pile-soil system could be most accurately calculated by constructing a stiffness matrix with the spring stiffness of the Reese (1974) method, which utilizes the coefficient of the subgrade reaction modulus, and Yang's (2009) dynamic p-y backbone curve method. The calculated natural frequencies were within 5% error compared with those of the shaking table tests for the pile system in dry dense sand deposits and 5% to 40% error for the pile system in saturated sand deposits depending on the occurrence of excess pore water pressure in the soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.95-104
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• 2006

For the interests in the economical and safe design of foundation system, the concern on the piled raft or disconnected piled raft foundation system is increasing now. In this study, the behavior and the effects of the disconnected piled raft foundation not studied actively in this country were examined using the triaxial compression tests in place of laboratory model tests. The triaxial test samples were prepared with Jumunjin standard sand and the carbon rods, which simulate the ground soil and piles respectively. After the sample in which carbon rods were arranged was laid inside the triaxial chamber, the confining pressure was applied and then loading test was conducted. To analyze the reinforcing effects of the disconnected piled raft foundation, a few number of tests were carried out by changing the number, the diameter and the length of the model piles. As a result of this study, in the disconnected piled raft foundation system, even though the number of pile is few and the diameter of pile is small, the settlement of the foundation system decreased greatly.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.3548-3556
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• 2015

In order to fulfill the needs of reliable and economically feasible foundation, engineers should consider not only the working load that can endure extreme conditions but also apprehending precise behavior of continuous dynamic load while designing the foundation of offshore wind power generators. To actualize the foundation, a model pile was made in miniature. Also, calibration chamber was made and a 500mm height of sand-bed was made to perform "static lateral load experiment" and "repetitive loading experiment", total of two Lateral load tests. As a result, in Static Lateral load test, the bigger length/diameter of model pile led an increase in load displacement. However, when performing "Cyclic Lateral load test", the increase in number of under loading led the decrease in horizontal displacement from each repeated lateral load. While performing Static Lateral load test and repeated loading experiment, we could observe the decreasing in the rate of ultimate lateral load capacity increase of the pile. Also, it turned out that the higher relative density of the ground, the lower ultimate lateral load capacity by repeated horizontal loading.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.55-61
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• 2011

Song-Do international city is the area developed in large-scale land reclamation. Song-Do area consists of reclamation layer, sedimentary layer(loose silt, soft clay and sand alternating) and residual layer from the ground surface. Therefore, using pile foundation is inevitable to build structures safely. In this area, driven PHC piles have been generally constructed in terms of environmental and economic conditions. As a result of analyzing 4 sites in Song-Do district 5 and 7 recently, the method of driving pile has many problems because of existence of rigid soil in sedimentary layer and installation of more than 30m piles. In this case, when installing piles by drive after pre-boring up to appropriate depth, the results of constructability analysis were very good. And in the economic efficiency, although 4% of construction cost rose, it was a very slight increase in comparison with improvement of workability. In the case of the stability, more than 70% compared to the allowable stress of piles was satisfied through the load test. As a result, when PHC piles is installed in Song-Do district, the proper construction method is that piles are located at bearing layer after boring rigid sand layer.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2015

Penetration resistance of bucket foundations with skirt wall in the silty sand of the western coast of Korea was analyzed by centrifuge modelling. The penetration resistance is induced when the bucket foundations are jacked into the soil without suction, and is directly related to the self-weight penetration depth. The procedure by Houlsby and Byrne (2005), which takes into account the effect of stress increase by frictional resistance of skirt wall, was utilized to generate the penetration resistance similar to the experimental results. This paper describes the methods by which major parameters such as lateral earth pressure coefficient and friction angle between the skirt wall and the soil are evaluated. The effect of changes in these parameters on the predictions is analyzed. Also, observed soil behaviour during jacking penetration is investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.15-23
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• 2015

An experimental study has been conducted to evaluate the effects of average and cyclic shear stresses on the undrained failure behaviors of dense marine silty sand by using the Cyclic Direct Simple Shear apparatus. The results show that when the average shear stress ratio is zero, symmetric cyclic shear deformation is the major component of deformation, and permanent shear deformation is relatively small. On the other hand, when the average shear stress ratio is larger than zero, asymmetric permanent shear deformation is the major component, and cyclic shear deformation does not change much as the number of cyclic loads increases. The average shear stress ratio has less effects on the number of cyclic loads needed to fail, as compared with the cyclic shear stress ratio. The proposed stress-dependent failure contour can effectively be used to assess the cyclic shear strength of soil beneath the foundation for the design of offshore structures.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.13-25
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• 2015

With the increasing usages of micropile, several researchers have been studying the bearing characteristics of micropile or micropile-raft system. But most cases of research were focused on the bearing capacity of micropile-raft system on sand layer. And it was not considered that the bearing capacity of micropile-raft system was affected by the failure mode of soil and pile installation conditions. Thereby this study conducted the numerical analysis to estimate the bearing capacity of micropile-raft system on sand or silt layer with different shear failure mode. It was found that the bearing capacity of micropile-raft system installed in positive or negative angle was larger than that of the system installed in vertical angle, in the case of the sand layer undergoing the general shear failure. In the case of silt layer undergoing the punching shear failure, the bearing capacity of micropile-raft system installed only in negative angle was larger than that installed in vertical or positive angle. And the bearing capacity of foundation system in positive angle was similar to the vertical micropile-raft system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.39-49
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• 2008

A study was carried out on the physico-chemical properties of soil and content of heavy metals and benzo(a)pyrene that might have been introduced through by-product fertilizers or air pollution to growing turfgrass at natural turfgrass playgrounds in elementary schools located at the western coast and eastern mountain areas in Jeollabuk-do, Korea. The soil of turfgrass playgrounds is composed of loamy sand, and the CEC and organic matters were very low. Compared to agricultural land in Korea, the concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were very low, requiring control in terms of nutrients. The contents of total and fraction heavy metals in soil were found to be background level. The reason may lie in the fact that unpolluted sand soil or sand was used to construct the foundation for the natural grass playground in the first place. However, any change in oxidation-reduction conditions or acceleration of decomposition of organic compounds may release some heavy metals from the soil and be transformed into forms that may be easily absorbed by plants or grass. It is believed that sustained monitoring and environment impact assessments should be carried out. The contents of benzo(a)pyrene in soil showed an average 0.60ng/g with a range between 0.06 to 1.47ng/g. The detected contents were found as background level.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.85-96
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• 2004

The ultimate bearing capacity of surface foundations on a sand layer overlying clay has been theoretically investigated. First, a review of previous studies on the bearing capacity problems for this type of foundation was performed and a discussion was presented concerning the practical application. Second, the kinematic approach of limit analysis was used to calculate the upper bound of the true ultimate bearing capacity. The kinematic solutions are upper bounds and their accuracy depends primarily on the nature of the assumed failure mechanism. This approach makes it convenient to create design charts, and it is possible to trace the influence of parameters. Third, the commercial finite element program ABAQUS was applied to obtain the ultimate bearing capacity based on the elasto-plastic theory. Results obtained from the kinematic approach were compared with those from the program ABAQUS and the limit equilibrium equations proposed by Yamaguchi, Meyerhof and Okamura et al. Finally, the validities of the results from the kinematic approach, the results from the program ABAQUS and the limit equilibrium equations were examined.