• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.557-585
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• 2013

The recent huge earthquake ground motion records in Japan result in the reconsideration of seismic design forces for nuclear power stations from the view point of seismological research. In addition, the seismic design force should be defined also from the view point of structural engineering. In this paper it is shown that one of the occurrence mechanisms of such large acceleration in recent seismic records (recorded in or near massive structures and not free-field ground motions) is due to the interaction between a massive building and its surrounding soil which induces amplification of local mode in the surface soil. Furthermore on-site investigation after earthquakes in the nuclear power stations reveals some damages of soil around the building (cracks, settlement and sand boiling). The influence of plastic behavior of soil is investigated in the context of interaction between the structure and the surrounding soil. Moreover the amplification property of the surface soil is investigated from the seismic records of the Suruga-gulf earthquake in 2009 and the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake in 2011. Two methods are introduced for the analysis of the non-stationary process of ground motions. It is shown that the non-stationary Fourier spectra can detect the temporal change of frequency contents of ground motions and the displacement profile integrated from its acceleration profile is useful to evaluate the seismic behavior of the building and the surrounding soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.41-49
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• 2014

The 3D numerical analysis is carried out to investigate the settlement behavior of flexible mat foundations subjected to vertical loads. Special attention is given to the improved analytical method (YS-MAT) that reflects the mat flexibility and soil spring coupling effect. The soil model captures the stiffness of the soil springs as well as the shear interaction between the soil springs. The proposed method has been validated by comparing the results with other numerical methods and a field measurement on mat foundation. Through comparative studies, the settlement of the proposed method was in relatively good agreement with those of a field measurement and other numerical methods. The results permit us to estimate the response of the mat foundation subjected to vertical loads that should be taken into account in the combination of mat flexibility and soil continuity characteristics.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.187-220
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• 2015

Soil disturbance induced by installation of mandrel driven vertical drains decreases the in situ horizontal hydraulic conductivity of the soil in the vicinity of the drains, decelerating the consolidation rate. According to available literature, several different profiles for the hydraulic conductivity variation with the radial distance from the vertical drain, influencing the excess pore water pressure dissipation rate, have been identified. In addition, it is well known that the visco-plastic properties of the soil also influence the excess pore water pressure dissipation rate and consequently the settlement rate. In this study, a numerical solution adopting an elastic visco-plastic model with nonlinear creep function incorporated in the consolidation equations has been developed to investigate the effects of disturbed zone properties on the time dependent behaviour of soft soil deposits improved with vertical drains and preloading. The employed elastic visco-plastic model is based on the framework of the modified Cam-Clay model capturing soil creep during excess pore water pressure dissipation. Besides, nonlinear variations of creep coefficient with stress and time and permeability variations during the consolidation process are considered. The predicted results have been compared with V$\ddot{a}$sby test fill measurements. According to the results, different variations of the hydraulic conductivity profile in the disturbed zone result in varying excess pore water pressure dissipation rate and consequently varying the effective vertical stresses in the soil profile. Thus, the creep coefficient and the creep strain limit are notably influenced resulting in significant changes in the predicted settlement rate.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 1991

This study was carried out for the purpose of pre-estimating long-term settlement under condition of actual field soil's property, in case of building up industrial sites on the marine deposit silty clay located at West Coast in Korea. This study analyzed Hyperbolic Method, Square Root Time Method and Exponential Function Method with utilization of measured survey values of settlement in In-Cheon Namdong Industrial Sites. In the future, for the continuos utilization, it seemed to be needed that further the survey values of fields should be accurartely measured for the analysis of more accurate pre-estimate about long-term settlement. Among the prediction methods of settlement Hyperbolic Method seemed to be the best fitting method for measured data. The settlement equations were derived from above three methods, for long-term settlements.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.737-742
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• 2009

This research intends to clarify the engineering characteristics of compression index which plays the most important role in the calculation of consolidation settlement, based on the survey of the clay in the estuary of Nakdong River. In addition, it will analyze the parameters of soil and the correlation between the parameters and the existing relation, especially the correlation with compression index, through which it will propose a proper relation for the parameters of clay in this area. As a result of the study, the relation between the settlement and the compression rate using compression index showed 13% settlement error on the average. It is judged that this number can be used for forecasting the consolidation characteristics and the settlement for brief (preliminary) design when the difference between the execution settlement and the measuring settlement is regarded to be 15%.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.61-74
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• 1996

Settlement induced by low -level vibration on granular soils is too complect to predict with one or two fact ors. Factors affecting vibration induced settlement were investigated, and a settlement prediction model on granular soils was developed using multifactorial experimental design(MED). Factors such as vibration amplitude, deviatoric stress, confining pressure, soil gradation, duration of vibration, moisture content, and relative density were considered in this study. A special vibratory frame was designed to shake a soil specimen within a triaxial cell. MED allowed the authors to investigate the effect of many factors using a relatively small number of experiments. The most significant factors on settlement were vibrati on amplitued, confining pressure, and defiatoric stress. Comparable settlement was occurred even under low-level vibration ranging from 2.5 to 18mm1sec, and stress am sotropy was found to be an important factor on settlement.

• 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.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.17-36
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• 2013

Settlement of the piled raft can be estimated even after years of completing the construction of any structure over the foundation. This study is devoted to carry out numerical analysis by the finite element method of the consolidation settlement of piled rafts over clayey soils and detecting the dissipation of excess pore water pressure and its effect on bearing capacity of piled raft foundations. The ABAQUS computer program is used as a finite element tool and the soil is represented by the modified Drucker-Prager/cap model. Five different configurations of pile groups are simulated in the finite element analysis. It was found that the settlement beneath the piled raft foundation resulted from the dissipation of excess pore water pressure considerably affects the final settlement of the foundation, and enough attention should be paid to settlement variation with time. The settlement behavior of unpiled raft shows bowl shaped settlement profile with maximum at the center. The degree of curvature of the raft under vertical load increases with the decrease of the raft thickness. For the same vertical load, the differential settlement of raft of ($10{\times}10m$) size decreases by more than 90% when the raft thickness increased from 0.75 m to 1.5 m. The average load carried by piles depends on the number of piles in the group. The groups of ($2{\times}1$, $3{\times}1$, $2{\times}2$, $3{\times}2$, and $3{\times}3$) piles were found to carry about 24%, 32%, 42%, 58%, and 79% of the total vertical load. The distribution of load between piles becomes more uniform with the increase of raft thickness.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.55-73
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• 2014

The theoretical predictions of ground movements induced by tunnelling are usually based on the assumptions that the subsoil has the same soil densities. The theoretical prediction does not consider the impact of different sand soil types on the surface settlement due to tunnelling. The finite elements analysis (FEA) considers stress and strength parameters of the different sand soil densities. The tunnel construction requires the solution of large soil-structure interaction problem. In the present study, the FEA is used to model soil-tunnel system performance based on a case study to discuss surface displacement due to tunnelling. The Greater Cairo metro tunnel (Line 3) is considered in the present study as case study. The surface displacements obtained by surface displacement equation (SDE) proposed by Peck and Schmidt (1969) are presented and discussed. The main objective of this study is to capture the limitations of the parameters used in the SDE based on the FEA at different sand soil densities. The study focuses on the parameters used in the SDE based on different sand soil densities. The surface displacements obtained by the FEA are compared with those obtained by the SDE. The results discussed in this paper show that the different sand soil densities neglected in the SDE have a significant influence on the surface displacement due to tunnelling.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.97-107
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• 2014

Settlement prediction has been conducted using Hyperbolic, Hoshino, and Monden methods, etc in the fields. These methods are only able to predict settlement after finishing the final filling stage. A new method is proposed to make up for such a weak point. This method was named as SPSFC (Settlement Prediction for Staged Filling Construction) method, which can be able to predict the settlement both the final filling stage and the staged filling from the initial filling stage in soft ground. To verify the applicability of the SPSFC method, firstly. The settlement predicted by the existed methods are compared with that obtained by the SPSFC method. The comparison results indicate the SPSFC has enough reliability to use for prediction of settlement. Secondly. by analyzing the settlement data measured during the initial filling stage, the soil parameters which need to predict the settlement are obtained by the SPSFC method. Then using the obtained soil parameters the time-settlement curve is predicted and compared. The predicted settlement is well matched with the measured one. From the study, the SPSFC method can be possible to predict settlement during the staged filling with only the initial settlement data.