• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.82-89
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• 2011

Understanding snowmelt movement to the watershed is crucial for both climate change and hydrological studies because the snowmelt is a significant component of groundwater and surface runoff in temperature area. In this work, a new energy balance budget algorithm has been developed for melting snow from a snowpack at the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory (CSSL) in California, US. Using two sets of experiments, artificial rain-on-snow experiments and observations of diel variations, carried out in the winter of 2002 and 2003, we investigate how to calculate the amount of snowmelt from the snowpack using radiation energy and air temperature. To address the effect of air temperature, we calculate the integrated daily solar radiation energy input, and the integrated discharge of snowmelt under the snowpack and the energy required to generate such an amount of meltwater. The difference between the two is the excess (or deficit) energy input and we compare this energy to the average daily temperature. The resulting empirical relationship is used to calculate the instantaneous snowmelt rate in the model used by Lee et al. (2008a; 2010), in addition to the net-short radiation. If for a given 10 minute interval, the energy obtained by the melt calculation is negative, then no melt is generated. The input energy from the sun is considered to be used to increase the temperature of the snowpack. Positive energy is used for melting snow for the 10-minute interval. Using this energy budget algorithm, we optimize the intrinsic permeability of the snowpack for the two sets of experiments using one-dimensional water percolation model, which are $52.5{\times}10^{-10}m^2$ and $75{\times}10^{-10}m^2$ for the artificial rain-on-snow experiments and observations of diel variation, respectively.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.155-158
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• 2008

Site index is the essential tool for forest management to estimate the productivity of forest land Generally, site index equation is developed and used by relationship between stand age and dominant tree heights. However, there is a limit to use the site index equation in the application of variable ages, environmental influence, and estimation of site index for unstocked land. Therefore, it was attempted to develop a new site index equations based on various environmental factors including site and topographical variables. This study was conducted to develop regional site index equations based on the relationship between site index and soil factors for Pinus densiflora. Environmental factors that obtained from GIS application, were selected by stepwise-regression. Site index Equation was estimated by multiple regression from selected factors. Four environmental factors were selected in the final site index equations by stepwise regression. It was observed that coefficients of determination for site index equations were ranged from 0.34 which seem to be relatively low but good enough for estimation of forest stand productivity. The site index equations developed in this study were also verified to be useful by three evaluation statistics such as model's estimation bias, model's precision and mean square error type of measure.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.67-75
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• 2014

Methane gas hydrate which is considered energy source for the next generation has an urgent need to develop reliable numerical simulator for coupled THM phenomena in the porous media, to minimize problems arising during the production and optimize production procedures. International collaborations to improve previous numerical codes are in progress, but they still have mismatch in the predicted value and unstable convergence. In this paper, FEM code for fully coupled THM phenomena is developed to analyze methane hydrate dissociation in the porous media. Coupled partial differential equations are derived from four mass balance equations (methane hydrate, soil, water, and hydrate gas), energy balance equation, and force equilibrium equation. Five main variables (displacement, gas saturation, fluid pressure, temperature, and hydrate saturation) are chosen to give higher numerical convergence through trial combinations of variables, and they can analyze the whole region of a phase change in hydrate bearing porous media. The kinetic model is used to predict dissociation of methane hydrate. Developed THM FEM code is applied to the comparative study on a Masuda's laboratory experiment for the hydrate production, and verified for the stability and convergence.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.51-55
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• 2013

Among various construction methods, deep soil stabilization by chemical method have been widely used in order to improve soft ground. Dynamic variables using ground(such as sand, weathered granite soil and rock) -structure interaction design affected by dynamic load and cyclic load were studied a lot. However, there is something yet to learn about earthquake resistant design regarding reinforced ground by grout. Therefore, in this study using RC test, the correlation between shear strain and shear modulus with change of water content and injection rate in normal portland cement and clay was compared and analyzed by using Ramberg-Osgood model normalization As the result, dynamic coefficient was considerably affected by water content and grout injection rate.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.521-532
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• 2004

The aim of this study is to evaluate the susceptibility of landslides at Kangneung area, Korea, using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing. Landslide locations were identified from interpretation of satellite image and field surveys. The topographic, soil, forest, geologic, lineament and land cover data were collected, processed and constructed into a spatial database using GIS and remote sensing data. Using frequency ratio model which is one of the probability model, the relationships between landslides and related factors such as slope, aspect, curvature and type of topography, texture, material, drainage and effective thickness of soil, type, age, diameter and density of wood, lithology, distance from lineament and land cover were calculated as frequency ratios. Then, the frequency ratio were summed to calculate a landslide susceptibility indexes and the landslide susceptibility maps were generated using the indexes. The results of the analysis were verified and cross-validated using actual landslide location data. The verification results showed satisfactory agreement between the susceptibility map and the existing data on landslide locations.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.23-34
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• 2006

In this study, the centrifugal tests were performed to evaluate the behavior of reinforced retaining wall that allows the settlement of reinforcement strip. To analyze the stability of reinforced retaining wall, which drives the settlement of reinforcement strip, the results were compared with the conventional reinforced retaining wall. In the centrifugal tests, the aluminum plate for the face was used and the aluminum foil was used as a reinforcement. The decomposed granite soil was adopted as a backfill. As a result, the settlement free reinforced retaining wall reached to the failure at 80g-level. In contrast, the conventional reinforced retaining wall was collapsed at 69g-level. It means that the settlement free reinforced retaining wall has the stronger stability than the conventional reinforced retaining wall. Also, vertical earth pressure of the settlement free reinforced retaining wall near the base of wall was higher 16% than that of the conventional reinforced retaining wall.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2017

In this study, 1/6 small-scale model tests of helical piles were conducted to evaluate their installation time and ultimate capacities. Model sand layers were constructed using sand pluviating method to produce uniform soil relative density. For installation of different helical piles varying locations (vertical center-to-center spacings of 50 mm and 150 mm) of helix plates, two different rotation speeds of 15 rpm and 30 rpm were implemented. Cone penetration equipment was installed within the hallow section of the helical pile to increase ultimate capacity of helical pile and to evaluate soil properties of plugged soils and soils below pile tip after installation of the piles. Based on the test results, the most fasted installation was possible under the condition of "rotation speed of 30 rpm and center-to-center spacing of 50 mm", and the highest ultimate capacity was mobilized under the condition of "rotation speed of 30 rpm and center-to-center spacing of 150 mm with cone penetration implementation."

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.75-83
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• 2014

Suction bucket foundation is installed with the differential pressure created by pumping water out of bucket. Bucket foundation has usually been utilized in mooring anchor for offshore platform or floating oil and gas production facilities in the open sea. After suction bucket foundation successfully was applied as the foundation for offshore wind turbines in Europe, it recently attracts much attention in Korea, too. To estimate the penetration resistance of the suction bucket foundation is one of the important matters that should be considered during its installation. This study carried out a series of model tests to investigate the penetration resistance of suction bucket foundation. And the mobilized soil strength factor was reviewed through comparing the experimental results by two installation ways (e.g., push-in-load and suction) and the results calculated by the conventional equation.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.631-642
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• 2013

The standard CPT(Cone Penetration Test), which can be easily performed to investigate in-situ soil engineering properties, has been widely used. CPT are also widely being utilized in centrifuge model tests. In this study, a miniature cone with 10mm diameter was developed and its applicability in the centrifuge was evaluated. The developed miniature cone was equipped with a four degree-of-freedom in-flight robot. A series of cone penetration tests was performed under four centrifuge acceleration levels. As results, the cone resistances measured at the same confining stress within shallow penetration depth were affected by the centrifugal accelerations. The critical depth was proportional to the cone diameter and relative density. Cone resistances results below the critical depth and soil parameters obtained from the laboratory tests were compared with those by previously proposed empirical relations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2018

Post-construction subgrade settlement especially differential settlement, has become a key issue in construction and operation of non-ballasted track on high-speed railway soil subgrade, which may also affect the dynamic performance of passing trains. To estimate the effect of differential subgrade settlement on the mechanical behaviors of the vehicle-slab track system, a detailed model considering nonlinear subgrade support and initial track state due to track self-weight is developed. Accordingly, analysis aiming at a typical high-speed vehicle coupled with a deteriorated slab track owing to differential subgrade settlement is carried out, in terms of two aspects: (i) determination of an initial mapping relationship between subgrade settlement and track deflections as well as contact state between track and subgrade based on a semi-analytical method; (ii) simulation of dynamic performance of the coupled system by employing a time integration approach. The investigation indicates that subgrade settlement results in additional track irregularity, and locally, the contact between the concrete track and the soil subgrade is prone to failure. Moreover, wheel-rail interaction is significantly exacerbated by the track degradation and abnormal responses occur as a result of the unsupported areas. Distributions of interlaminar contact forces in track system vary dramatically due to the combined effect of track deterioration and dynamic load. These may not only intensify the dynamic responses of the coupled system, but also have impacts on the long-term behavior of the track components.