• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.381-390
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• 2024

The introduction of bio-based materials has been recommended in the geotechnical engineering field to reduce environmental pollutants such as heavy metals and greenhouse gases. However, bio-treated soil methods face limitations in field application due to short research periods and insufficient verification of engineering performance, especially when compared to conventional materials like cement. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a machine learning model for predicting the unconfined compressive strength, a representative soil property, of biopolymer-based soil treatment (BPST). Four machine learning algorithms were compared to determine a suitable model, including linear regression (LR), support vector regression (SVR), random forest (RF), and neural network (NN). Except for LR, the SVR, RF, and NN algorithms exhibited high predictive performance with an R² value of 0.98 or higher. The permutation feature importance technique was used to identify the main factors affecting the strength enhancement of BPST. The results indicated that the unconfined compressive strength of BPST is affected by mean particle size, followed by biopolymer content and water content. With a reliable prediction model, the proposed model can present guidelines prior to laboratory testing and field application, thereby saving a significant amount of time and money.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.1215-1225
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• 2014

Volcanic rocks formed from magma near the earth surface commonly show vesicular structures due to exsolution of gaseous phases in magma. The distinction and the amount of vesicles are greatly various, but there are few researches on the effect of volume percentage of vesicles on the mechanical properties. In this study, mechanical characteristics of volcanic rocks in relation to the porosity are investigated through experimental tests with Jeju basalt. Two methods (the buoyancy method and the caliper method) are adopted for measuring porosity. And unconfined compressive strength, elastic modulus, tensile strength, and elastic wave velocity are plotted against porosity in order to propose the empirical relations after the regression analysis. Also, unconfined compressive strength and the elastic modulus in relation to the elastic wave velocity are proposed with the analysis. In the case of vesicular rocks with more than 5% porosity, it is found that the buoyancy method provides more accurate estimation of porosity than the caliper method. The unconfined compressive strength, the elastic modulus, and the elastic wave velocity decrease curvilinearly with increasing in porosity. Also, the unconfined compressive strength and the elastic modulus increase linearly with increasing in elastic wave velocity.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.59-67
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• 2016

The strength of frozen soils is affected by size and shape of particles, and the amount of ice and unfrozen water. The objective of this study is to characterize the unfrozen water content and the unconfined compressive strength of the frozen soils according to the degree of saturations and silt fractions. The specimens are mixtures of sand, silt, and water. The silt fractions (SF), which are the ratio of the silt weight ($W_{silt}$) to the sand weight ($W_{sand}$), are 10% and 30%. In addition, the degrees of the saturation are 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%. The specimens are frozen under the temperature of $-10^{\circ}C$ conditions. The uniaxial compression tests are conducted for 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after freezing to determine proper freezing time. The freezing time of 24 hours is chosen because the unconfined compressive strengths of specimens after 24 hours freezing times are similar to each other. Furthermore, the unfrozen water content is monitored during freezing using the TDR system. The unfrozen water content increases with the increase of the silt fraction and degree of saturation. The unconfined compressive strength of the frozen soils exponentially increases with increasing the degree of saturation. This study shows that the amount of ice has more influence on the strength of the frozen soils than the amount of unfrozen water.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.61-72
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• 2016

In Korea, the aquifers at the coastal areas are mostly shallow alluvial unconfined aquifers. To simulate the flow and dispersion in unconfined aquifer, a FDM model has been developed to solve the nonlinear Boussinesq equation. Related analysis and verification have been executed. The iteration method is used to solve the nonlinearity, and the model shows 3-D shape because it is a 2-D y model that consider the undulation of water table and bottom. For the verification of the model, the output of flow module is compared to the 1-D analytic solution of Lee (1989) which have the drawdown or uplift boundary condition, and the two results show almost the same value. and the mass balance of dispersion module shows about 10% error. The developed model can be used for the analysis and design of the flow and dispersion in the unconfined aquifers. The model has been applied to the estuary area of Ssangcheon watershed, and the parameters have been deduced as a result : hydraulic conductivity is 90 m/day, and longitudinal dispersivity is 15 m. And the analysis with these parameters shows that the wells are situated in the influence circle of each others except for No. 7 well. Groundwater discharge to sea is $3700m^3/day$. And the chlorine ion ($cl^-$) concentration at the pumping wells increase at least 1000 mg/L if groundwater dam is not exist, so the groundwater dam plays an important role for the prevention of sea water intrusion.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.19-26
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• 2012

In this study, geotechnical tests including unconfined compression test were carried out to evaluate the ground improvement effect of the hardening agent, which has been developed by using inter-chemical reactions between slag, fly ash, phosphogypsum and bypass dust on the weathered granite soil and dredged marine clay. Test results show that the strength of weathered granite soil mixed with hardening agent B-2, which uses phosphogypsum as an activator, is higher than that of B-1, which uses bypass dust as an activator. Strengths of B-1 & B-2 hardening agent mixed soil show only 44%~60% of strength of OPC(Ordinary Portland Cement, OPC) mixed soil. However, since B-1 and B-2 agents are made of industrial by-products, they seem economically more effective than ordinary portland cement as well as other present hardening agents. Test results on dredged marine clay show that unconfined compression strength increases with amount of agent and curing days. Unconfined compression strength of 14% B-1 agent mixed soil increases linearly with curing days and reaches only 40% of OPC mixed soil. While unconfined compression strength of 14% B-2 agent mixed soil increases exponentially and reaches 133% of OPC mixed soil. Relationship between deformation modulus and unconfined compression strength of B-1 and B-2 mixed soil can be expressed as $E_{50}=(20{\sim}47)_{qu,28}$, which is similar with lower limit of OPC mixed dredged marine clay.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.29-43
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• 2015

In this study, engineering property tests were conducted for cement milk used as a filling materials in the bored piles method. For this purpose, various water/cement ratio specimens were produced on the basis of standard specimen specified in highway corporation specifications. The unconfined compressive strength, point load strength, elasticity modulus, poisson's ratio test was performed according to the age. As a test result, injection height for productions of cement milk specimens was defined ratios. Correlation coefficient K of the unconfined compressive strength and point load strength were $K_7=4.55{\sim}13.65$ in age 7 days, and $K_{28}=5.28{\sim}16.84$ in age 28 days. When water / cement ratio is 65-150%, the elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio significantly increased and decreased regardless of age. In addition, the formulae were proposed for unconfined compressive strength, point load strength, a correlation coefficient of unconfined compressive strength, point load strength, elastic modulus, and poisson's ratio for each age.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.4C
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• pp.213-220
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• 2008

A study on cemented sand reinforced with short fibers was carried out to improve its unconfined compressive strength and brittle behavior. Nak-dong River sand was mixed with Portland cement and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers. A PVA fiber widely used for concrete reinforcement is randomly distributed into cemented sand. Nak-dong River sand, cement and fibers with optimum water content were compacted in 5 layers and then cured for 7 days. The effect of fiber reinforcement rather than cementation was emphasized by using a small amount of cement. Weakly cemented sand with a cement/sand ratio less than 8% was fiber-reinforced with different fiber ratios and tested for unconfined compression tests. The effect of fiber ratio and cement ratio on unconfined compressive strength was investigated. Fiber-reinforced cemented sand with 2% cement ratio showed up to six times strength to non-reinforced cemented sand. Because of ductile behavior of fiber-reinforced specimens, an axial strain at peak stress of specimens with 2% cement ratio increases up to 7% as a fiber ratio increases. The effect of 1% fiber addition into 2% cemented sand on friction angle and cohesion was analyzed separately. When the fiber reinforcement is related to friction angle increase, the 8% of applied stress transferred to 1% fibers within specimens.

• 한국가스학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.173-178
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• 2003

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.689-696
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• 2003

In this study, ordinary portland cement, slag cement and micro cement which have been used in the construction fields were evaluated for the environmental effects and compression strength characteristics for curing solution. To find the leaching of C $r^{6+}$ characteristics in cement grouts, C $r^{6+}$ content tests were performed for the raw materials(cement powder). In addition, C $r^{6+}$ leaching tests were peformed for the homo-gel samples according to change of pH and each curing solution with the deionized water and leachate. Then, the unconfined compression strength tests were peformed with the homo-gel samples and the amount of changed C $r^{6+}$ was measured by curing solution.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.437-453
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• 2014

This paper studies the swelling and strength characteristics of unimproved and improved expansive soils in terms of the swell potential, swelling pressure, rate of secondary swelling, unconfined compressive strength and California bearing ratio (CBR). The admixtures used in this study are locally available cement and fly ash. The soils used in this study were taken from the Mae Moh power plant, Lampang Province, in northern Thailand. A conventional consolidation test apparatus was used to determine the swelling of the soil specimen. The optimum admixture contents are determined to efficiently reduce the swelling of unimproved soil. The rate of secondary swelling for unimproved soil is within the range of highly plastic montmorillonite clay, whereas the specimens improved with optimum admixture contents can be classified as non-swelling kaolinite. A soil type affects the swelling pressure. Expansive soil improvement with fly ash alone can reduce swelling percentage but cannot enhance the unconfined compressive strength and CBR. The strength and swelling characteristics can be predicted well by the swelling percentage in this study.