• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.227-239
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• 2018

Background: Predicting the potential habitat of plants in arid regions, especially for medicinal ones, is very important. Although Pergularia tomentosa is a key species for medicinal purposes, it appears in very low density in the arid rangelands of Iran, needing an urgent ecological attention. In this study, we modeled and predicted the potential habitat of P. tomentosa using maximum entropy, and the effects of environmental factors (geology, geomorphology, altitude, and soil properties) on some characteristics of the species were determined. Results: The results showed that P. tomentosa was absent in igneous formation while it appeared in conglomerate formation. In addition, among geomorphological units, the best quantitative characteristics of P. tomentosa was belonged to the conglomerate formation-small hill area (plant aerial parts = 57.63 and root length = 30.68 cm) with the highest electrical conductivity, silt, and $CaCO_3$ content. Conversely, the species was not found in the mountainous area with igneous formation. Moreover, plant density, length of roots, and aerial parts of the species were negatively correlated with soil sand, while positive correlation was observed with $CaCO_3$, EC, potassium, and silt content. The maximum entropy was found to be a reliable method (ROC = 0.91) for predicting suitable habitats for P. tomentosa. Conclusion: These results suggest that in evaluating the plant's habitat suitability in arid regions, contrary to the importance of the topography, some environmental variables such as geomorphology and geology can play the main role in rangeland plants' habitat suitability.

• 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.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.485-496
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• 2019

Sealing of leakage in waterfront or water-retaining structures is one of the major issues in geotechnical engineering practices. With demands for biological methods as sustainable ground improvement techniques, bioclogging, defined as the reduction in hydraulic conductivity of soils caused by microbial activities, has been considered as an alternative to the chemical grout techniques for its economic advantages and eco-friendliness of microbial by-products. This study investigated the feasibility of bioaugmentation and biostimulation methods to induce fermentation-based bioclogging effect in coarse sands. In the bioaugmentation experiments, effects of various parameters and conditions, including grain size, pH, and biogenic gas generation, on hydraulic conductivity reduction were examined through a series of column experiments while Leuconostoc mesenteroides, which produce an insoluble biopolymer called dextran, was used as the model bacteria. The column test results demonstrate that the accumulation of bacterial biopolymer can readily reduce the hydraulic conductivity by three-to-four orders of magnitudes or by 99.9-99.99% in well-controlled environments. In the biostimulation experiments, two inoculums of indigenous soil bacteria sampled from waterfront embankments were prepared and their bioclogging efficiency was examined. With one inoculum containing species capable of fermentation and biopolymer production, the hydraulic conductivity reduction by two orders of magnitude was achieved, however, no clogging was found with the other inoculum. This implies that presence of indigenous species capable of biopolymer production and their population, if any, play a key role in causing bioclogging, because of competition with other indigenous bacteria. The presented results provide fundamental insights into the bacterial biopolymer formation mechanism, its effect on soil permeability, and potential of engineering bacterial clogging in subsurface.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.29-38
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• 2021

This study investigated the mineralogical properties of bentonite and illite and evaluated the Cs sorption at various concentrations (C_w≈1-10⁵ ㎍/L). Bentonite samples, collected from South Korea and USA, majorly consisted of Ca- and Na-montmorillonite, showed large cation exchange capacity (CEC, 91.4 and 47.3 meq/100 g) and specific surface area (SSA, 46.1 and 39.7 m²/g). In contrast, illite sample (USA) had relatively low values for 14.4 meq/100g of CEC and 29.3 m²/g of SSA, respectively. Bentonite and illite had different non-linear sorption for Cs along with C_w. At low C_w<10 ㎍/L, illite showed higher sorption capacity than bentonite despite low CEC because of the existence of specific sorption sites at the weathered mineral edge. However, as C_w increased, bentonite represented high sorption capacity because the cation exchange between Cs and interlayer cations was effective at high C_w conditions. These results implicated that the Cs concentration is important to evaluate the sorption performance of bentonite and illite. Finally, the Cuadros' kinetic model for illitization using various K concentrations (2×10^-5 and 1.7×10^-3 mol/L) and temperature (100-200℃) showed that up to 50% of the montmorillonite in bentonite could be converted to illite, suggesting that the illitization should be considered to evaluate the sorption performance of the bentonite in deep geological disposal repository.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.405-412
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• 2011

Increased Non-permeable areas which have resulted from civilization reduce the volume of groundwater infiltration that is one of the important factors causing water shortage during a dry season. Thus, seeking the efficient method to analyze the volume of groundwater in accurate should be needed to solve water shortage problems. In this study, two different watersheds were selected and precipitation, soil group, and land use were surveyed in a particular year in order to figure out the accuracy of estimated infiltration recharge ratio compared to Web-based Hydrograph Analysis Tool (WHAT). The volume of groundwater was estimated considering Antecedent soil Moisture Condition (AMC) and Curve Number (CN) using Long Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment (L-THIA) model. The results of this study showed that in the case of Kyoung-an watershed, the volume of both infiltration and baseflow seperated from WHAT was 46.99% in 2006 and 33.68% in 2007 each and in Do-am watershed the volume of both infiltration and baseflow was 33.48% in 2004 and 23.65% in 2005 respectively. L-THIA requires only simple data (i.e., land uses, soils, and precipitation) to simulate the accurate volume of groundwater. Therefore, with convenient way of L-THIA, researchers can manage watershed more effectively than doing it with other models. L-THIA has limitations that it neglects the contributions of snowfall to precipitation. So, to estimate more accurate assessment of the long term hydrological impacts including groundwater with L-THIA, further researches about snowfall data in winter should be considered.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2021

In this paper, an analytical model is proposed for assessing the natural frequency of barrettes subjected to vertical loading. The differential equation governing the free vibration of rectangular friction piles embedded in inhomogeneous soil is derived. The governing equation is numerically integrated by Runge-Kutta technique and the eigenvalue of natural frequency is computed by Regula-Falsi method. The numerical solutions for the natural frequency of barrettes compare well with those obtained from finite element analysis. Illustrated examples show that the natural frequencies increase with an increase of the cross-sectional aspect ratio, the friction resistance ratio and the soil stiffness ratio, and decrease with an increase of the friction aspect ratio, the slenderness ratio and the load factor, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2006

Soil liquefaction occurs by complex dynamic interaction between soil particles and pore fluid. Therefore, experimental researches have been widely performed to analyze liquefaction phenomena. In this research, centrifuge tests were performed to analyze the liquefaction behavior of horizontal sand ground. Centrifugal acceleration was 40g and the thickness of model ground was 25cm, which simulates 10m thickness in prototype scale. Viscous fluid was used as pore fluid to remove the time scaling difference between dissipation and dynamic shaking. Test results showed that the dissipation of excess pore pressure is the combined behavior of solidification and consolidation. In addition, the solidification rate, the ground acceleration amplitude, and the dynamic permeability during solidification were influenced by the confining pressure.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.5-17
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• 2009

The microcomputer program PileNSF (Pile Negative Skin Friction) is developed by the authors in a graphical user interface (GUI) environment using $MATLAB^{(R)}$ for predicting the bearing capacity of a pile embedded in a consolidating ground by surcharge loading. The proposed method extends the one-dimensional soil-pile model based on the nonlinear load transfer method in OpenSees to perform an advanced one-dimensional consolidation settlement analysis based on finite strain. The developed program has significant features of incorporating Mikasa's finite strain consolidation theory that accounts for reduction in the thickness of the clay layer as well as the change of the soil-pile interface length during the progress of consolidation. In addition, the consolidating situation of the ground by surcharge filling after the time of pile installation can also be considered in the analysis. The program analysis by the presented method has been verified and validated with several case studies of long-term test on single piles subjected to negative skin friction. Predicted results of negative skin friction (downdrag and dragload) as a result of long from consolidation settlement are shown to be in good agreement with measured and observed case data.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.43-51
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• 2007

Frost action may cause extensive damage to building, structures, roads, railways and utility lines in seasonal frost. The research about frost heave of natural ground has been considerably performed. In late years various structures have become complicated with the development of social infrastructure maintenance. Therefore countermeasure to frost heave becomes a matter of great importance from a new viewpoint. This study was aimed at catching natural ground frost heaving force quantitatively. Frost heaving forces on circular steel plates which were set on ground surface were measured in field test. The frost heaving forces arise at freezing front propagates to the structures through frozen soil layer. Besides, a full scale model of multi-anchored retaining wall was installed in field, and the freezing lines, frost heave pressure to act on a wall block, and so on were measured. Finally, the position and shape of frost line were estimated by using numerical simulation and a method to determine replacement range was suggested with soil properties and weather data.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.59-65
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• 2008

Digital close-range photogrammetric technique can measure and describe 3D geometric farm from 2D image. This technique is increasingly applied in the field of sciences. In the fields of civil and mechanical engineering, which need precise measurements for design, expensive measuring equipments are widely used. In occasions where visual inspection is required in addition to other forms of measurements, appropriate measuring equipments have not been yet available. This study utilizes digital close-range photogrammetric technique to quantitatively analyze behavior patterns before and after destruction from test model of reinforced-soil wall. Then the results are compared with the measurements obtained using digital theodolite to verify the reliability of the proposed method.