• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.133-140
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• 2023

Soil erosion can cause scouring and failures of underwater structures, therefore, various soil improvement techniques are used to increase the soil erosion resistance. The microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) method is proposed to increase the erosion resistance, however, there are only limited experimental and numerical studies on the use of MICP treatment for improvement of surface erosion resistance. Therefore, this study investigates the improvement in surface erosion resistance of sands by MICP through laboratory experiments and numerical modeling. The surface erosion behaviors of coarse sands with various calcium carbonate contents were first investigated via the erosion function apparatus (EFA). The test results showed that MICP treatment increased the overall erosion resistance, and the contribution of the precipitated calcium carbonate to the erosion resistance and critical shear stress was quantified in relation to the calcium carbonate contents. Further, these surface erosion processes occurring in the EFA test were simulated through the coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) with the cohesion bonding model to reflect the mineral precipitation effect. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results, and the developed CFD-DEM model with the cohesion bonding model well predicted the critical shear stress of MICP-treated sand. This work demonstrates that the MICP treatment is effective in improving soil erosion resistance, and the coupled CFD-DEM with a bonding model is a useful and promising tool to analyze the soil erosion behavior for MICP-treated sand at a particle scale.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.273-278
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• 2008

This study was carried out in order to test unsaturated hydraulic conductivity estimation of van Genuchten's and Campbell's models using one-step outflow method through Tempe pressure cell. The undisturbed soil cores (columns) were taken from Ap1, B1 and C horizons of Songjeong series (the fine loamy, mesic family of Typic Hapludults). After the saturated hydraulic conductivity Ks of the cores was determined by constant head method, water outflow rate and retentivity of cores were measured in Tempe pressure cell. Fitted curves by models accorded to measured data except for both end of pressure range. In near-saturated condition, measured water retention characteristics showed a relatively better fitness with Campbell's model than van Genuchten's. The soil unsaturated conductivity estimated by Campbell's model was higher than by van Genuchten's. In Ap1 and B1 horizon, the soil unsaturated conductivities obtained by one-step outflow method went between van Genuchten's and Campbell's hydraulic functions, slightly closer to van Genuchten's. In C horizon, van Genuchten's model had better fitness with the one-step outflow data. Consequently, van Genuchten's model generally had better fitness with measured hydraulic conductivity than Campbell's model at the soil water potential range of -10~-75 kPa, especially in C1 horizon. In near-saturated condition, Campbell's model could be thought as relatively accurate hydraulic model, because of the better fitness of Campbell's model with soil water retention data than van Genuchten's model.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.319-323
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• 2014

This study investigates the prediction of soil chemical properties (organic matter (OM), pH, Ca, Mg, K, Na, total acidity, cation exchange capacity (CEC)) on 688 Korean soil samples using the visible-near infrared reflectance (VIS-NIR) spectroscopy. Reflectance from the visible to near-infrared spectrum (350 to 2500 nm) was acquired using the ASD Field Spec Pro. A total of 688 soil samples from 168 soil profiles were collected from 2009 to 2011. The spectra were resampled to 10 nm spacing and converted to the 1st derivative of absorbance (log (1/R)), which was used for predicting soil chemical properties. Principal components analysis (PCA), partial least squares regression (PLSR) and regression rules model (Cubist) were applied to predict soil chemical properties. The regression rules model (Cubist) showed the best results among these, with lower error on the calibration data. For quantitatively determining OM, total acidity, CEC, a VIS-NIR spectroscopy could be used as a routine method if the estimation quality is more improved.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.333-343
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• 2020

Preventing or reducing the damage impact of lateral soil movements on piled foundations is highly dependent on understanding the behavior of passive piles. For this reason, a detailed experimental study is carried out, aimed to examine the influence of soil density, the depth of moving layer and pile spacing on the behavior of a 2×2 free-standing pile group subjected to a uniform profile of lateral soil movement. Results from 8 model tests comprise bending moment, shear force, soil reaction and deformations measured along the pile shaft using strain gauges and others probing tools were performed. It is found that soil density and the depth of moving layer have an opposite impact regarding the ultimate response of piles. A pile group embedded in dense sand requires less soil displacement to reach the ultimate soil reaction compared to those embedded in medium and loose sands. On the other hand, the larger the moving depth, the larger amount of lateral soil movement needs to develop the pile group its ultimate deformations. Furthermore, the group factor and the effect of pile spacing were highly related to the soil-structure interaction resulted from the transferring process of forces between pile rows with the existing of the rigid pile cap.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.88 no.3
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• pp.273-285
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• 2023

This study examines how the interaction between soil and a wind turbine's supporting system affects the optimal design. The supporting system resting on an elastic soil foundation consists of a steel conical tower and a concrete circular raft foundation, and it is subjected to wind loads. The material cost of the supporting system is aimed to be minimized employing various metaheuristic optimization algorithms including teaching-learning based optimization (TLBO). To include the influence of the soil in the optimization process, modified Vlasov and Gazetas elastic soil models are integrated into the optimization algorithms using the application programing interface (API) feature of the structural analysis program providing two-way data flow. As far as the optimal designs are considered, the best minimum cost design is achieved for the TLBO algorithm, and the modified Vlasov model makes the design economical compared with the simple Gazetas and infinitely rigid soil models. Especially, the optimum design dimensions of the raft foundation extremely reduce when the Vlasov realistic soil reactions are included in the optimum analysis. Additionally, as the designated design wind speed is decreased, the beneficial impact of soil interaction on the optimum material cost diminishes.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.126-135
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• 1993

Recently, the characteristic of plant production systems in Korea has been changed with the strong trends of integration and large scale, using environmental control techniques. To satisfy this change successfully, first of all, the environmental prediction inside the system must be preceded. While many environmental prediction models for plant production system were developed by many persons, each model cannot be applied to the every situation without the perfect understanding of source codes and the technical modification. The purpose of this study is building the environmental prediction model to predict and evaluate the environment inside the system numerically, and also developing the multipurpose program available for practical design. The model consisted of the basic system model, the cultivation related model and the environmental control related model. The contents of each model are as follows : the basic system model is dealing with thermal and light environments, soil environment and ventilation : the cultivation related model with soil and hydroponic cultures ; and the environmental control related model with thermal curtain and heat exchanging system. The environmental prediction model was developed using a common simulation program, PCSMP, so that it could be easily understood and modified by anyone. Finally, the model was executed and verified through comparison between simulated and measured results for soil culture, and both results showed good agreements.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.165-175
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• 2017

This paper studies soil properties uncertainty and its implementation in the seismic response evaluation of structures. For this, response sensitivity of two 4- and 12-story RC shear walls to the soil properties uncertainty by considering soil structure interaction (SSI) effects is investigated. Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) model is used for shallow foundation modeling and the uncertainty of soil properties is expanded to the foundation stiffness and strength parameters variability. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique is employed for probabilistic evaluations. By investigating the probabilistic evaluation results it's observed that as the soil and foundation become stiffer, the soil uncertainty is found to be less important in influencing the response variability. On the other hand, the soil uncertainty becomes more important as the foundation-structure system is expected to experience nonlinear behavior to more sever degree. Since full This paper studies soil properties uncertainty and its implementation in the seismic response evaluation of structures. For this, response sensitivity of two 4- and 12-story RC shear walls to the soil properties uncertainty by considering soil structure interaction (SSI) effects is investigated. Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) model is used for shallow foundation modeling and the uncertainty of soil properties is expanded to the foundation stiffness and strength parameters variability. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique is employed for probabilistic evaluations. By investigating the probabilistic evaluation results it's observed that as the soil and foundation become stiffer, the soil uncertainty is found to be less important in influencing the response variability. On the other hand, the soil uncertainty becomes more important as the foundation-structure system is expected to experience nonlinear behavior to more sever degree. Since full probabilistic analysis methods like MC commonly are very time consuming, the feasibility of simple approximate methods' application including First Order Second Moment (FOSM) method and ASCE41 proposed approach for the soil uncertainty considerations is investigated. By comparing the results of the approximate methods with the results obtained from MC, it's observed that the results of both FOSM and ASCE41 methods are in good agreement with the results of MC simulation technique and they show acceptable accuracy in predicting the response variability.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.43-54
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• 1995

The aim of the work described in this paper is to develope a constitutive model for the prediction of an unsaturated soil and to confirm the application'of the model, which is composed of the elastic and plastic part in consideration of the matric suction and the net mean stress. From test results, volume changes and deviator stresses are analyzed at each state and their relationships are formulated. The application of the model to silty sands is confirmed by the comparison between test and predicted results. During drying -wetting and loading -unloading processes for isotropic states, the agreement between predicted and test results are satisfactory. Predicted deviator stresses are well agreed with test results in shearing process. Overall acceptable predictions are reproduced in high confining pressure. Usefulness of the model is confirmed for the unsaturated soil except volumetric strain, which is not well agreed with the test results due to deficiency of dilatancy of the model in low confining pressure. It is, therefore. recommended to study the behavior of dilatancy for an unsaturated soil.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.187-206
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• 2011

Accurate estimations of pre-failure deformations and post-failure responses of geostructures require that the simulation tool possesses at least three main ingredients: 1) a constitutive model that is able to describe the macroscopic stress-strain-strength behavior of soils subjected to complex stress/strain paths over a wide range of confining pressures and densities, 2) an embedded length scale that accounts for the intricate physical phenomena that occur at the grain size scale in the soil, and 3) a computational platform that allows the analysis to be carried out beyond the development of an initially "contained" failure zone in the soil. In this paper, a two-scale micropolar plasticity model will be used to incorporate all these ingredients. The model is implemented in a finite element platform that is based on the mechanics of micropolar continua. Appropriate finite elements are developed to couple displacement, micro-rotations, and pore-water pressure in form of $u_n-{\phi}_m$ and $u_n-p_m-{\phi}_m$ (n > m) elements for analysis of dry and saturated soils. Performance of the model is assessed in a biaxial compression test on a slightly heterogeneous specimen of sand. The role of micropolar component of the model on capturing the post-failure response of the soil is demonstrated.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.69-88
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• 2000

A relatively simple model of a buried structure response to a surface loading that can simulate a possible opening and closure of a gap between the soil and the structure is presented. Analysis of the response of small and medium scale buried roof slabs under surface impulsive loading shows that the model's predictions are in fairly good agreement with the experimental results. Application of the model to a study case shows the relative influence of system parameters such as, the depth of burial, the arching coefficient, and the roof thickness, on the interface pressure and on the roof displacement. This model demonstrates the effect of a gap between the structure and the soil. The relative importance of including a gap opening and closure in the analysis is examined by the application of the model to a study case. This study results show that the deeper the depth of burial, the longer the gap duration, and the shorter the duration of the initial interface impact, while the higher the soil's shear resistance, the higher the gap duration, and the shorter the initial interface impact duration.