• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1868-1873
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• 2006

A novel microorganism that could degrade high molecular weight gellan was screened and isolated from soil. On gellan plate, the microorganism grew well and completely liquefied the plate. The gellan-degrading microorganism was isolated by pure culture on glucose and nutrient agar medium afterwards. The 16S rDNA sequence analysis and biochemical tests using an API 50CHB/20E kit revealed that the strain belonged to Bacillus sp. The isolate, named as Bacillus sp. YJ-1, showed optimum gellan-degrading activity in 0.5% gellan medium at pH 7.5 and 37$^{\circ}C$. The activity was measured and evaluated by the thiobarbituric acid and thin-layer chromatography method. Mass spectrometry revealed that the major gellan.. depolymerized product was an unsaturated tetrasaccharide consisting of $\Delta$4,5-glucuronic acid-(1$\rightarrow$4 )-$\beta$-D-glucose-(1$\rightarrow$4)- $\alpha$-L-rhamnose-(1$\rightarrow$3)-$\beta$-D-glucose, which is a dehydrated repeating unit of gellan, thus the enzyme was identified as gellan lyase. When the gellan was present in the medium, the gellan-degrading activity was much higher than that in glucose-grown cells. These results indicate that in the presence of gellan, Bacillus sp. YJ-1 is able to metabolize the gellan by inducing gellan-degrading enzymes that can degrade gellan into small molecular weight oligosaccharides, and then the gellan. depolymerized products are taken up by the cells and utilized by intracellular enzymes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.64-69
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• 2003

Pseudomonas chlororaphis HS21 was isolated from a soil sample and found to produce medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (MCL-PHAs) using palm kernel oil (PKO) as the sole carbon source. Up to 3.3 g/1 dry cell weight containing $45\%$ MCL-PHA was produced, when the strain was grown for 21 h in a jar fermentor culture containing 5 g/1 PKO. The polymer produced from PKO consisted of unsaturated monomers of $7.3\%$ 3-hydroxy-5-cis-tetradecenoate and $2.3\%$ 3-hydroxy-5,8,-cis, cis-tetradecadienoate as well as saturated even-carbon number monomers ranging from $C_6\;to\;C_14$, as determined by GC and El GC/MS The PHA was a transparent, sticky material at room temperature. A differential scanning calorimetric analysis revealed that the polymer was amorphous with a $-44^{\circ}C$ glass transition temperature. The number average molecular weight and polydispersity index of the PHA were 83,000 and 1.53, respectively. Although the PHA was practically biodegradable, its degradability was lower than that of poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate) based on a comp:trison of the clear zones formed by growing PHA depolymerase-producing bacteria on an agar plate containing the respective polymers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.4 no.1 s.12
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• pp.25-31
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• 2004

Infiltration of rainfall causes railway embankment to be unstable and may result in failure. Basic relationship between the rainfall and stability of railway embankment is defined to analyze the stability of embankment by rainfall. An experimental study for defining of infiltration rate of rainfall into slope is conducted in the lab. The results of Rainfall Infiltration show that rainfall Infiltration is not equal to infiltration as like reservoir because rate of rainfall infiltration is controlled by slope angle. Based on these results, boundary condition of rainfall is altered and various numerical analysis are performed. The variation of shear strength, the degree of saturation and pore-water pressure for railway slope during rainfall can be predicted and the safety factor of railway slope can be expressed as the function of rainfall amount, namely rainfall index. Therefore, it is judged that this rainfall index can be a good tool for the rail-transport operation control.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.109-122
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• 1993

ln this paper, a finite element analysis procedure is proposed for the incremental multi-step excavations in a fluid-saturated porous medium such as saturated soil ground. As the basis of derivation, Biot's equation was used. The proposed procedure was applied to some one- and two-dimensional problems under incremental excavations. Unsaturated cases as well as saturated cases were considered for comparison. Through numerical tests, the effects of permeability and excavation speed on the deformation history was investigated. Results showed that pore pressure built up during incremental excavation has a significant effect on the deformation and stresses of solid skeleton and validated the use of the present procedure for the analysis of multi-step excavations in fluid-saturated media such as in saturated shallow ground.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2017

In recent years, ground subsidence has been frequently occurred by underground cavities due to the excessive groundwater inflow, caused by poor construction and management, during tunnel excavation and underground structure construction. In this study, a numerical model (SEEFLOW3D) was developed to estimate groundwater fluctuations for saturated-unsaturated poros media, evaluates the impact on ground excavation with open cut and non-open cut scenarios. In addition, the visual MODFLOW was applied to demonstrate the verification of the model compared with both results. Our results indicated that the RMSE and NRMSE was obtained to range over -3.95~5.7% and 0.56~4.62%, respectively. The developed model was expected to estimate groundwater discharges and apply analysis tool for optimum design of waterproof wall in future.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.29-38
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• 2011

The unsaturated layers by rainfall infiltration are not properly reflected in construction codes to do slope design. The objective of this paper is to analyze the slope behavior according to the saturation layer increase resulted from the rainfall infiltration, to do that the laboratory slope model apparatus was adopted. From the model apparatus, the variation of water content and strength parameters of the model slope were analyzed. The safety factors of model slope was decreased, if saturation layer was increased from 3.0m to 4.5m, which means ground water level 3m selected from construction codes makes higher safety level. Also, if the ground water level is located in soil surface, the lower safety level will show up. Therefore, to make the proper slope design, the experiments and analysis of variation of saturation layer is needed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.25-31
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• 2021

Boundary conditions for thermal-hydraulic problems of soils play an essential role in the numerical accuracy. This study presents a boundary condition considering the thermo-hydraulic interaction between the ground and the atmosphere. Ground surface energy balance consists of solar radiation, ground radiation, wind convection, latent heat from water evaporation, and heat conduction to the ground. Equations for each heat flux are presented, and numerical analyses are performed in conjunction with the FEM program for the thermal-hydraulic phenomenon of unsaturated soils. Numerical results using the weather data at the Ulsan Meteorological Observatory are similar to the measured surface temperature. Latent heat caused by water evaporation during the daytime lowers the surface temperature of the bare soil, and a thermal equilibrium is reached at nighttime when the effect of the ground condition is significantly reduced. The temperature change of the surface ground is diminished at the deeper ground due to its thermal diffusion. Numerical analysis where the surface ground temperature is the primary concern requires considering the thermo-hydraulic interaction between the ground and the atmosphere.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.39-47
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• 2022

This study aims at evaluating the stability of disaster risks, such as schools, apartments, and geotechnical structures located around slopes in urban areas. The research conducted an aerial photography analysis on where the slope of the retaining wall behind 𐩒𐩒 High School in Gwangju collapsed in August 2018 due to heavy rain. In general, the overflow of rainwater has been managed through drainage channels around slopes during the rainy season, and the surface flow of rainfall was limited due to the presence of dense forests in the area. However, when the slope collapsed, a lot of water flowed out of the ground, and the saturated surface layer ground was destroyed. To analyze the cause, the changed terrain of the upper slope area, which could not be directly identified, was photographed using unmanned aerial vehicles. Digital Elevation Model by unmanned aerial vehicle shooting was performed by analyzing the slope map, calculating the direction of rainfall and the length and width of water-logged areas. The change in the instability of the slope over time due to a 10-day rainfall was also analyzed through numerical analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.37-45
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• 2010

Salt cementation, a typical naturally-cemented phenomenon, may occur due to water evaporation under the change of climate. Capillary force may influence the distribution of cement in granular soils. This study addresses the effect of capillary force on salt cementation using five different techniques: cone penetration test, electrical conductivity measurement, photographic imaging technique, nondestructive imaging technique, and process monitoring by elastic wave. Glass beads modeling a particulate media was mixed with salt water and then dried in an oven to create the cementation condition. Experimental results show that salt cementation highly concentrates at the top of the small particle size specimens and at the middle or the bottom of the large particle specimens. The predicted capillary heights are similar to the locations of high salt concentration in the cemented specimens. Five suggested methods show that the behavior of salt-cemented granular media heavily depends on the capillary force.