• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.435-445
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• 2019

A series of element tests with different drainage conditions and strain rates were performed on compacted unsaturated non-plastic silt in unconfined conditions. Soil samples were compacted at water contents from dry to wet of optimum with the degree of saturation varying from 24 to 59.5% while maintaining the degree of compaction at 80%. The tests performed were shear infiltration tests in which specimens had constant net confining pressure, pore air pressure was kept drained and constant, just before the shear process pore water pressure was increased (and kept constant afterwards) to decrease matric suction and to start water infiltration. In constant water content tests, specimens had constant net confining pressure, pore air pressure was kept drained and constant whereas pore water pressure was kept undrained. As a result, the matric suction varied with increase in axial strain throughout the shearing process. In both cases, maximum shear strength was obtained for specimens prepared on dry side of optimum moisture content. Moreover, the gradient of stress path was not affected under different strain rates whereas the intercept of failure was changed due to the drainage conditions implied in this study.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2016

This study examined the magnitude and distribution of earth pressure on the support system in a jointed rock mass due to the different joint spacing as well as varying the rock type and joint condition (joint shear strength and joint inclination angle). Based on a physical model test and its numerical simulation, a series of numerical parametric analyses were conducted using a discrete element method. The results showed that the magnitude and distribution of earth pressure were strongly affected by the different joint spacing as well as the rock type and joint condition. In addition, the study results were compared with Peck's earth pressure for soil ground, which indicated that the earth pressure in a jointed rock mass could be considerably different from that in soil ground. The study suggests that the joint spacing as well as the rock type and joint condition are important factors affecting the earth pressure in a jointed rock mass and they should be considered when designing a support system in a jointed rock mass.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.75-84
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• 2009

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are a new type of information processing system based on modeling the neural system of human brain. The prediction of swell pressures from easily determined soil properties, namely, initial dry density, initial water content, and plasticity index, have been investigated by using artificial neural networks. The results of the constant volume swell tests in oedometers, performed on statically compacted specimens of Bentonite-Kaolinite clay mixtures with varying soil properties, were trained in an ANNs program and the results were compared with the experimental values. It is observed that the experimental results coincided with ANNs results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.399-404
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• 2008

The influence of gas hydrate dissociation on submarine slope stability was studied in this paper. Gas hydrates are stable under high pressure and low temperature conditions. Once gas hydrate dissociates due to natural or human activities, it generates large amount of gas and water. During gas hydrate dissociation, a pore pressure between soil particles increases and results in the loss of an effective stress and degradation of soil stiffness. A pore pressures model was proposed to calculated excess pore pressures generated by gas hydrate dissociation at the Storegga Slide. A slope stability analysis for the Storegga Slide using a two dimensional finite difference method was carried out by considering excess pore pressures due to gas hydrate dissociation. Since the excess pore pressure calculated by the proposed method resulted in the considerable loss of stiffness and strength in slope, a submarine slope failure occurred at the Storegga slide was well simulated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.209-216
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• 2000

When subjected to earthquake shaking, saturated sandy soil may generate excess pore pressure. And a time may come when initial confining pressure will equal to excess pore pressure. Depending on the characteristics of the soil and the length of the drainage path, excess pore pressure was dissipated after earthquake. For this reason, it was induced settlement in grounds and fatal damage of various structures. In this study, settlement in silty sand grounds induced earthquake was evaluated using post-liquefaction constitutive equation between volumetric strain and shear strain from previous study. Using that, it was proposed that simplified estimation of settlement in silty sand grounds induced liquefaction.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.909-935
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• 2014

The seismic characteristics of two semi-gravity reinforced concrete cantilever retaining walls are examined via an experimental program using an outdoor shake table (one with and the other without concrete masonry sound wall on top). Both walls are backfilled with compacted soil and supported on flexible foundation in a steel soil container. The primary damages during both tests are associated with significant lateral displacements of the wall caused by lateral earth pressure; however, no collapse occurs during the tests. The pressure distribution behind the walls has a nonlinear trend and conventional methods such as Mononobe-Okabe are insufficient for accurate pressure estimation.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.25 no.B
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• pp.63-71
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• 2005

This paper is an experimental result of investigating lateral soil movements at piled bridge abutments by using the centrifuge model facility. Three different centrifuge model experiments, changing the methods of ground improvement at bridge abutment on the soft clayey soil (no improvement, preconsolidation and plastic board drains (PBD), sand compaction pile (SCP) + PBD), were carried out to figure out which method is the most appropriate for resisting against the lateral soil movements. In the centrifuge modelling, construction process in field was reconstructed as close as possible. Displacements of abutment model, ground movement, vertical earth pressure, cone resistance after soil improvement and distribution of water content were monitored during and after centrifuge model tests. As results of centrifuge model experiments, preconsolidation method with PBD was found to be the most effective against the lateral soil movement by analyzing results about displacements of abutment model, ground movement and cone resistance. Increase of shear strength by preconsolidation method resulted in increasing the resistance against lateral soil movement effectively although SCP could mobilize the resistance against lateral soil movement. It was also found that installment with PBD beneath the backfill of bridge abutment induced effective drainage of excess pore water pressure during the consolidation by embanking at the back of the abutment and resulted in increasing the shear strength of clay soil foundation and eventually increasing the resistance of lateral soil movement against piles of bridge abutment.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2011

Piles passing through sloping liquefiable deposits are prone to lateral loading if these deposits liquefy and flow during earthquakes. These lateral loads caused by the relative soil-pile movement will induce bending in the piles and may result in failure of the piles or excessive pile-head displacement. Whilst the weak nature of the flowing liquefied soil would suggest that only small loads would be exerted on the piles, it is known from case histories that piles do fail owing to the influence of laterally spreading soils. It will be shown, based on dynamic centrifuge test data, that dilatant behaviour of soil close to the pile is the major cause of these considerable transient lateral loads which are transferred to the pile. This paper reports the results of geotechnical centrifuge tests in which models of gently sloping liquefiable sand with pile foundations passing through them were subjected to earthquake excitation. The soil close to the pile was instrumented with pore-pressure transducers and contact stress cells in order to monitor the interaction between soil and pile and to track the soil stress state both upslope and downslope of the pile. The presence of instrumentation measuring pore-pressure and lateral stress close to the pile in the research described in this paper gives the opportunity to better study the soil stress state close to the pile and to compare the loads measured as being applied to the piles by the laterally spreading soils with those suggested by the JRA design code. This test data shows that lateral stresses much greater than one might expect from calculations based on the residual strength of liquefied soil may be applied to piles in flowing liquefied slopes owing to the dilative behaviour of the liquefied soil. It is shown at least for the particular geometry studied that the current JRA design code can be un-conservative by a factor of three for these dilation-affected transient lateral loads.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.465-479
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• 2021

One of the important causes of building and infrastructure failure, such as bridges on pile foundations, is the placement of the piles in liquefiable soil that can become unstable under seismic loads. Therefore, the overarching aim of this study is to investigate the seismic behavior of a soil-pile system in liquefiable soil using three-dimensional numerical FEM analysis, including soil-pile interaction. Effective parameters on concrete pile response, involving the pile diameter, pile length, soil type, and base acceleration, were considered in the framework of finite element non-linear dynamic analysis. The constitutive model of soil was considered as elasto-plastic kinematic-isotropic hardening. First, the finite element model was verified by comparing the variations on the pile response with the measured data from the centrifuge tests, and there was a strong agreement between the numerical and experimental results. Totally 64 non-linear time-history analyses were conducted, and the responses were investigated in terms of the lateral displacement of the pile, the effect of the base acceleration in the pile behavior, the bending moment distribution in the pile body, and the pore pressure. The numerical analysis results demonstrated that the relationship between the pile lateral displacement and the maximum base acceleration is non-linear. Furthermore, increasing the pile diameter results in an increase in the passive pressure of the soil. Also, piles with small and big diameters are subjected to yielding under bending and shear states, respectively. It is concluded that an effective stress-based ground response analysis should be conducted when there is a liquefaction condition in order to determine the maximum bending moment and shear force generated within the pile.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.85-94
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• 2012

Recently, growing interests in frozen ground have stimulated us to advance fundamental theories and systematic researches on soil behavior under freezing conditions. Unlike the well-established soil mechanics theory, temperature variation and phase change of pore-water cause water migration to cold side, ground heaving, sharp increase in earth pressure, etc., which bring about serious problems in frozen geotechnical structures. Elasto-plastic mechanical constitutive model for frozen/unfrozen soil subjected to fully coupled THM phenomena is formulated based on a new stress variable that is continuous in frozen-unfrozen transitional regions. Numerical simulations are conducted to discuss numerical reliability and applicability of the developed constitutive model: one-dimensional heaving pressure, tri-axial compression test, and one-side freezing tests. The numerical results show that developed model can efficiently describe complex THM phenomena of frozen soil, and they can be utilized to analyze and design the geotechnical structures under freezing conditions, and predict their long-term behavior.