• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.11-24
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• 2013

This study presents a design method for typical rainfall-induced landslide considering in-situ matric suction. Actual landslide data are used to validate the proposed method. The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) and unsaturated permeability are experimentally determined to estimate hydraulic properties of testing site. The field measurement of matric suction is carried out to monitor in-situ matric suction in a natural slope subjected to rainfall infiltration, which is incorporated in the landslide analysis. The wetting band depth and safety factor of the slope are assessed to clarify the effect of domestic rainfall pattern. Especially, the effect of antecedent rainfall on the slope stability is investigated and discussed in terms of wetting band depth using parametric study. It is found from the result of this study that proposed design method can consider the characteristic of unsaturated soil and effect of antecedent rainfall. The location of the scarp zone is fairly well predicted by proposed design method. Moreover, heavy rainfall, concentrated in the backward part with time, causes the lowest safety factor of the slope. These results demonstrate that decrease in matric suction due to antecedent rainfall may trigger slope instability. After the antecedent rainfall, additional rainfall may cause the slope failure due to increasing wetting band depth.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2005

For detecting a ground contamination survey, soil sampling method have been used a drilling or coring technique in general. However these methods are very difficult to systematically real-time monitoring of variation of contamination degree in field. ]'n this research frequency Domain Reflectometry (FDR) system was suggested and carried out to experimental approaches for determination of oil contamination on surface and underground. Experimental method using FDR method was discussed with feasibility of measurement in the laboratory column test. It is determined to degree of oil contamination due to response of dielectric constant re-lated with volumetric water content(θ/sub w/) and volumetric oil content( θ/sub al/ ) of saturated and unsaturated soil media. And physical properties such as effective porosity and oil residual ratio of saturated soil media were also measured through real-time monitoring works using installed FDR measurement sensors, which are defected characteristics of oil movement in the saturated soil media under the soil column tests. In the results of these experiments, a range of effective porosity was estimated to about 0.35 compared with initial porosity 0.40 of manufactured saturated soil media, which is also calculated to about 87.5% to the ratio of initial porosity to effective porosity. Finally oil residual ratio which is compared with volumetric water content and volumetric oil content was calculated about 62.5%.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 1998

Inorganic nitrogens resulting from fertilizers are possible contaminants of bank-filtered ground water, which is an alternative source of safe drinking water. We conducted a laboratory study to determine the fate of inorganic nitrogens in the near field of bank filtration sites and we consequently illustrated the effects of these possible contaminants on the water quailty of bank filtration. Soil properties were found to be well equivalent to those of other cultivated field soils in Korea. Surface soil pH was about 4.3 which is slightly lower than average level. Overall, diverse concentrations of $NO_3$-N and $NH_3$-N were measured, and $NO_2$-N was nearly undetected. $NH_3$-N level in the field decreased, while $NO_3$-N increased along with increasing depth of unsaturated zone. Numbers of viable and nitrifying bacteria ranged from 6.73$\times$$10^{6}$to 10.7$\times$$10^{6}$ and 0.44$\times$$10^{4}$ to 5.21$\times$$10^{4}$ respectively, and both of them were highly correlated ($R^{2}$=0.992). Nitrifying potential assayed by batch test showed relatively lower than other reported results. The oxygen uptake potential of surface and subsurface soil was measured in the presence of ${(NH_4)_2}$$SO_4$. The results demonstrated that surface soil required shorter lag period and uptaked more oxygen than subsurface's.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.97-109
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• 2022

This study focused on the physicochemical effects of bottom ash dissolved precipitation on the soil and groundwater environment. The iced column and percolation experiments showed that most of the bottom ash particles were drained as the ash-dissolved solution, while the charcoal powder was filtered through the soil. Ion species of Al, As, Cu, Cd, Cr, Pb, Fe, Mn, Ca, K, Si, F, NO₃, SO₄ were analyzed from the eluates collected during the 24 h column test. In the charcoal powder eluates, a high concentration of K was detected at the beginning of the reaction, but it decreased with time. The concentrations of Al and Ca were observed to increase with time, although they existed in trace amount. In the bottom ash eluates, the concentrations of Ca and SO₄ decreased by 30 mg·L^-1 and 67 mg·L^-1, respectively, over 24 h. It is regarded that the infiltration patterns of the bottom ash and biochar in the unsaturated zone were different owing to their particle sizes and solvent properties. It is expected that a significant amount of the bottom ash will mix with the precipitation and percolate below the water table, especially in the case of thin and highly permeable unsaturated zone. The biochar was filtered through the unsaturated zone. The biochar did not dissolve in the groundwater, although it reached the saturation zone. For these reasons, it is considered that the direct contamination by the bottom ash and biochar are unlikely to occur.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.5-14
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• 2013

Among the various thermal properties, thermal conductivity of soils is one of the most important parameters to design a horizontal ground heat exchanger for ground-coupled heat pump systems. It is well known that the thermal conductivity of soil is strongly influenced by its density and water content because of its particulate structure. This paper evaluates some of the well-known prediction models for the thermal conductivity of particulate media such as soils along with the experimental results. The semi-theoretical models for two-component materials were found inappropriate to estimate the thermal conductivity of dry soils. It comes out that the model developed by Cote and Konrad provides the best overall prediction for unsaturated sands available in the literature. Also, a parametric analysis is conducted to investigate the effect of thermal conductivity, water content and soil type on the horizontal ground heat exchanger design. The results show that a design pipe length for the horizontal ground heat exchanger can be reduced with an increase in soil thermal conductivity. The current research concludes that the dimension of the horizontal ground heat exchanger can be reduced to a certain extent by backfilling materials with a higher thermal conductivity of solid particles.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.555-571
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• 2023

Due to South Korea's concentrated summer rainfall, constituting 70% of the annual total, landslides frequently occur during the rainy season, necessitating accurate prediction methods to mitigate associated damage. In this study, a reduced-scale and full-scale slope was configured using weathered granite soil to find the possibility of establishing measurement management criterias through landslide reproduction. The experiment focused on matric suction, analyzing changes in ground properties and failure patterns caused by rainfall infiltration. Subsequently, an unsaturated infinite slope stability analysis was conducted. By calculating the failure time when the safety factor falls below 1 for each experiment, landslide prediction was demonstrated to be possible, approximately 17 minutes prior for the reduction-scale experiment and 6.5 hours for the full-scale experiment. These findings provide useful data for establishing Korean soil slope measurement management criteria that consider the characteristics of weathered granite soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.215-224
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• 2001

The concept that the electrical properties of subsurface material can be affected by the introduction of contaminants might be applicable fur developing the leakage detection system for petroleum hydrocarbons of underground storage tanks and leachate coming from landfill. Investigations were conducted with diesel, NaCl solution, and leachate by laboratory tests. Simulation test was performed leaking at a certain point in the field. The measured resistance was exponentially decreased as the water content of uncontaminated unsaturated sand was increased. The resistance of soil was increased by diesel but decreased by NaCl solution or leachate. The optimum electrode spacings were found for NaCl solution, leachate and diesel. Electrolytic solutions were better detected by wider spacing than non electrolytic solution.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.751-762
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• 1999

In this study, a 1-D laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the characteristics of transient unsaturated solute transport by using two kinds of soils of which properties were known by test. Especially the TDR method which is proposed in this study was used to measure water content and solute concentration. As results, in the transient flow, the wetting front moves down rapidly, and the distribution of solute concentration near the wetting front showed the similar type of the water content distribution(semi-bell type). A numerical model HYDRUS was used to compare with the experimental results. Numerical results for the water movement are similar to experimental result. However, numerical results of the distribution of solute concentration are more scattered than experimental results. It means that measured dispersivity, numerical dispersion, adsorption coefficient, and soil sample size etc. should be considered in order to determine the dispersivity used in the numerical model. The present measuring method was proved to be superior to other formula and to be an available method to apply to solute transport test. The measuring error of the developed method is estimated smaller than 10% while water content is larger than 0.15.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.5-12
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• 2005

In order to investigate the strength and deformation anisotropy of compacted decomposed granite soils, a series of unsaturated-drained triaxial compression tests were performed. The sample used in the study was decomposed granite soil from Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi prefecture. The sample had three different angles of the axial (major principal) direction to the sedimentation plane (compaction plane), 0, 45 and 90 degrees. The compression strain of specimens subjected to isotropic compression was strongly influenced by the sedimentation angle. In addition, the time dependence was independent of the sedimentation angle in relation to the deformation behavior during the secondary compression process. The effect of the sedimentation angle on the triaxial compression strength and deformation was clear with low confining stress. Moreover, it was recognized that although the sedimentation angle and preparation methods were different, the dilatancy rate was relative to the increment of strength due to dilatancy. Therefore, it may be concluded that the compacted specimen has anisotropic mechanical properties similar to those of sand with initial fabric anisotropy.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.217-223
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• 2010

In general, fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) wastes are simply buried or burned. Landfill brings about a permanent contamination of soil due to the inability of FRP to decompose and incineration causes an issue of generating toxic gases and dusts. There have been several ways to treat the FRP wastes such as landfill, incineration, chemical recycling, material recycling and the utilization of energy from combustion. Most methods excluding material recycling are known to have critical limitations in economic, technical and environmental manners. However it is known that material recycling is most desirable among the methods handling FRP wastes. In this study, to investigate the purpose of feasibility of material recycling, various bulk molding compound (BMC) specimens were prepared with the various contents of unsaturated polyester resin binder (25, 30, 35 wt%) and the various replacement ratios of FRP wastes powder (0, 25, 50, 75, 100 wt%) substituted for filler. To evaluate the physical properties BMC specimens, various tests such as tensile strength, flexural strength, impact strength, hot water resistance and SEM imaging were conducted. As a results, mechanical strengths decreased with an increase of replacement ratio of FRP waste powder and physical properties of BMC specimens were deteriorated in the hot water resistance. The fluidity of BMC with more than 50 wt% of the replacement ratio of FRP wastes powder decreased remarkably, causing a problem in the BMC composite.