• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.5-12
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• 2002

This paper presents the results of plate load test and dynamic load test performed to evaluate the performance of geocell which is used to reinforce soft subgrade for high-speed railroad. Efficiency of geocell was observed in the increase in bearing capacity of subgrade and in the reduction of thickness of reinforced sub-ballast. One layer of geocell underlying a 10 cm thick cover soil led to an increase in bearing capacity three to four times larger than that of a crushed stone layer of the same thickness substituted for the geocell and cover soil layer Given the test conditions, the thickness of reinforced sub-ballast can be reduced by approximately 35 cm with the presence of geocell.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.73-80
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• 2017

PURPOSES : This paper presents a comparison study between dynamic and static analyses of falling weight deflectometer (FWD) testing, which is a test used for evaluating layered material stiffness. METHODS: In this study, a forward model, based on nonlinear subgrade models, was developed via finite element analysis using ABAQUS. The subgrade material coefficients from granular and fine-grained soils were used to represent strong and weak subgrade stiffnesses, respectively. Furthermore, the nonlinearity in the analysis of multi-load FWD deflection measured from intact PCC slab was investigated using the deflection data obtained in this study. This pavement has a 14-inch-thick PCC slab over fine-grained soil. RESULTS: From case studies related to the nonlinearity of FWD analysis measured from intact PCC slab, a nonlinear subgrade model-based comparison study between the static and dynamic analyses of nondestructive FWD tests was shown to be effectively performed; this was achieved by investigating the primary difference in pavement responses between the static and dynamic analyses as based on the nonlinearity of soil model as well as the multi-load FWD deflection. CONCLUSIONS : In conclusion, a comparison between dynamic and static FEM analyses was conducted, as based on the FEM analysis performed on various pavement structures, in order to investigate the significance of the differences in pavement responses between the static and dynamic analyses.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1999.11c
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• pp.129-141
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• 1999

This paper presents the results of plate load test and dynamic load test performed to evaluate the performance of geocell where it is used to reinforce soft subgrade for high-speed railroad. Efficacy of geocell was observed in increase in bearing capacity of subgrade and reduction of thickness of reinforced sub-ballast. Plate load tests were carried out at four different places with varying foundation soil strength as a function of number of geocell layer, type of filler material, thickness of cover soil, and the presence of non-woven geotextile. Dynamic load tests were performed in a laboratory. The test soil chamber consists of, from the bottom, 50 cm thick clayey soil, one layer of geocell filled with crushed stone, 10 cm thick crushed stone cover, reinforced sub-ballast of varying thickness, 35 cm thick ballast. This configuration was determined based on the results of numerical analysis and plate load tests. For each set of the dynamic load tests, loads were applied more than 80,000 times. One layer of geocell underlying a 10 cm thick cover soil led to an increase in bearing capacity three to four times compared to a crushed stone layer of the same thickness substituted for the geocell and cover soil layer. Given the test conditions, the thickness of reinforced sub-ballast can be reduced by approximately 35 cm with the presence of geocell.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.101-110
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• 2002

This article summarises the traditional method of soil-structure interaction based on the modulus of subgrade reaction and shows its weakness. In order to avoid these weakness, a new soil-structure interaction model is proposed. This model considers the soil as a set of connected springs which enables interaction between springs. Its use is as simple as the traditional model but allows to define the soil properties independently from the structural properties and the loading conditions. Thus, the definition of the modulus of subgrade reaction is unnecessary as each component is defined by its own modulii (Young's modulus and shear modulus). The non-linear soil behaviour for the shear stress versus distortion is also incorporated in the model. This feature allows to pinpoint the arching effect in the ground and shows how the stresses concentrate on stiff materials. Based on these principles, three dimensional program has been developed in order to solve the difficult problem of soil improvement by inclusions (stiff or soft). Also the possibility to take into account a flexible mat and/or a subgrade layer has been implemented. Equations used in the model are developed and a parametric study of the necessary data used in the program is presented. In particular, the Westergaard modulus notion and the arching effect are analysed.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2006

This study presents the laboratory properties on the frost heave under various moisture contents and compaction efforts in pavement subgrade soil. Many researches were conducted on the frost heave. However, the researches with the domestic soils have not been so active until now. In particular, the evaluation of the frost heave in pavement subgrade soils was not established by many researchers. The problems relating with the frost heave have been serious causes in the distresses of pavements. The study was performed using an appropriate field simulation. The research results revealed that the drainage conditions in earth work should be treated cautiously.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.03b
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• pp.255-262
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• 2000

Shaking table tests were peformed to evaluate the subgrade reaction of ground according to the build-up of pore water pressure. Model pile was installed in the sand ground. The acceleration of the model ground, the pore water pressure build-up and displacement of pile were recorded by measuring devices. Subgrade reaction approach based on Winker soil model was applied to obtain the modulus of the horizontal subgrade reaction. The results of analysis show that the reduction factor of the subgrade reaction due to pore pressure increase is about 1 and the horizontal subgrade reaction of liquefied ground is not influenced by the stiffness of pile, a ground acceleration and the intial ground density.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.385-396
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• 2022

The accurate determination of the subgrade reaction modulus (K_s) of soil is an important factor for geotechnical engineers. This study estimated the K_s of soft soil improved with floating deep cement mixing (DCM) columns. A novel prediction model was developed that emphasizes the accuracy of identifying the most significant parameters of K_s. Several multi-layer perceptron (MLP) models that were trained using the Levenberg Marquardt (LM) backpropagation method were developed to estimate K_s. The models were trained using a reliable database containing the results of 36 physical modelling tests. The input parameters were the undrained shear strength of the DCM columns, undrained shear strength of soft soil, area improvement ratio and length-to-diameter ratio of the DCM columns. Grey wolf optimization (GWO) was coupled with the MLPs to improve the performance indices of the MLPs. Sensitivity tests were carried out to determine the importance of the input parameters for prediction of K_s. The results showed that both the MLP-LM and MLP-GWO methods showed high ability to predict K_s. However, it was shown that MLP-GWO (R = 0.9917, MSE = 0.28 (MN/m²/m)) performed better than MLP-LM (R =0.9126, MSE =6.1916 (MN/m²/m)). This proves the greater reliability of the proposed hybrid model of MLP-GWO in approximating the subgrade reaction modulus of soft soil improved with floating DCM columns. The results revealed that the undrained shear strength of the soil was the most effective factor for estimation of K_s.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.1140-1147
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• 2005

The objective of this study was to identify the effect of the degree of saturation on the resilient modulus of cohesive soils as subgrade. Six representative cohesive soils representing A-4, A-6, and A-7-6 soil types collected from road construction sites across Ohio, were tested in the laboratory to determine their basic engineering properties. Resilient modulus tests were conducted on unsaturated cohesive soils at optimum moisture content, and samples compacted to optimum conditions but allowed to fully saturate. The subgrade compacted at optimum moisture content may be fully saturated due to seasonal change. Laboratory tests on fully saturated cohesive soils showed that the resilient modulus of saturated soils decreased to less than half that of soil specimens tested at optimum moisture content. The reduction of resilient modulus would possibly be caused by the buildup of pore water pressure. In resilient modulus testing performed in this study on saturated samples, pore water pressure increases were observed. Pore water pressure and residual pore water pressure gradually increased with an increase in deviator stress.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.1506-1512
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• 2010

In this study, model tests were performed to investigate the settlement characteristics of the rock/soil mixture subgrade with the many portion of mudstone due to the cyclic train loading in high-speed railway. Specially, from the tests varying initial degree of saturation, effects of increment of the degree of saturation in the subgrade due to rainfall or elevation of ground water table under cyclic train loading on the deformation characteristics were analyzed. From the results, in the low degree of saturation, settlement converged to some value. However, in the condition of degree of saturation larger than some value, settlement rapidly increased. Therefore, it was found that it is important to maintain the degree of saturation of subgrade below the specific level to prevent the settlement of subgrade.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.201-210
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• 2022

This paper presents a study regarding the influence of various water levels on the characteristics of subgrade mud pumping through a self-developed test instrument. The characteristics of mud pumping are primarily reflected by axial strain, excess pore water pressure, and fine particle migration. The results show that the axial strain increases nonlinearly with an increase in cycles number; however, the increasing rate gradually decreases, thus, an empirical model for calculating the axial strain of the samples is presented. The excess pore water pressure increases rapidly first and then decreases slowly with an increase in cycles number. Furthermore, the dynamic stress within the soil first rapidly decreases and then eventually slows. The results indicate that the axial strain, excess pore water pressure, and the height and weight of the migrated fine particles decrease significantly with a low water level. In this study, when the water level is 50 mm lower than the subgrade soil surface, the issue of subgrade mud pumping no longer exist.