• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.69-76
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• 2007

Axial behavior of tapered piles is affected by taper angle, stress state of soils, soil frictional angle and pile-soil interface friction angle. In this paper, a series of model pile load tests were performed using a calibration chamber in order to investigate the effect of taper angle on the axial response of cast-in-place tapered piles in sand. According to results of the tests, as taper angle of piles increased, the shaft load capacity of piles increased but its base load capacity decreased. The unit base load capacity of piles increased with increasing taper angle for medium sand but decreased for dense sand. The ratio of shaft to total load capacity increased with increasing taper angle and with decreasing relative density of soils. The test results also showed that total load capacity per unit pile volume increased with increasing taper angle for medium sand, but it decreased for dense sand. Therefore, it can be stated that tapered piles are economically more beneficial for medium sand than for dense sand.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.419-425
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• 2009

Recently, the number of shallow tunnel construction increases to improve the structural safety and environment-friendliness. In Semi-Cut and Cover Method, ground is excavated to the crown arch level and braced rib arch is set to backfill before the excavation of lower face. Semi-Cut and Cover Method is proposed to solve the problems occurred by the conventional Cut and Cover Method, such as unstability, high-cost and the large cutting slope to be reinforced. In this paper, the behaviors of Braced Rib Arch in shallow tunnel excavated by semi-cut and cover method was studied. Model tests in 1:10 Scale were performed in real construction sequences. The distance between supports of rib arch was 1.8 m and the length of spacer was 1.0 m. the size of test pit was 4.0 m (width)$\times$3.3 m (length) 4.0 m (height) in dimension. Tests results show that backfill load acting on arch was smaller than that in the conventional Open-Cut Method.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.855-867
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• 2018

When a weak zone exists ahead of tunnel face, the stress in the adjacent area would increase due to the longitudinal arching effect and the stability of the tunnel is affected. Therefore, it is critical to prepare a countermeasure through the investigation of the frontal weakness zone of the excavated face. Although there are several researches to predict the existence of weak zone ahead of tunnel face, such as geophysical exploration, numerical analysis and tunnel support, lack of studies on the relaxation zone depending on the width or distance from the vulnerable area. In this study, the impact of the weak zone on the formation of the relaxation zone was investigated. For this purpose, a series of laboratory test were carried out varying the width of the weak zone and the separation distance between tunnel face and weak zone. In the model test, sand with a water content of 3.8% was used to form a model ground. The model weak zone was constructed with dry sand curtains. The tunnel face was adjusted to allow a sequential excavation of upper and lower half part. load cells were installed on the bottom of the foundation and the tunnel face and measuring instruments for displacement were installed on the surface of the model ground to measure the vertical stress and surface displacements due to tunnel excavation respectively. The test results show that the width of weak zone did not affect the ground settlement while the ground subsidence drastically increased within 0.25D. The vertical stress and horizontal stress increased from 0.5D or less. In addition, the longitudinal arching effect is likely within the 1.0D zone ahead of the tunnel face, which may reduce the vertical stress in the ground following tunneling direction.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.51-62
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• 2004

Granular compaction piles have the load bearing capacity of the soft ground increase and have the settlement of foundation built on the reinforced soil reduce. The granular compaction group piles also have the consolidation of the soft ground accelerate and have the liquefaction caused by earthquake prevent using the granular materials such as sand, gravel, stone etc. However, this method is one of unuseful methods in Korea. The Granular compaction piles are constructed by grouping it with a raft system. The confining pressure at the center of bulging failure depth is a major variable in relation to estimate for the ultimate bearing capacity of the granular compaction piles. Therefore, a share of loading is determined considering the effect of load concentration ratio between the granular compaction piles and surrounding soils, and varies the magnitude of the confining pressure. In this study, method for the determination of the ultimate bearing capacity is proposed to apply a change of the horizontal pressure considering bulging failure depth, surcharge and loaded area. Also, the ultimate bearing capacity of the granular compaction piles is evaluated on the basis of previous study on the estimation of the ultimate bearing capacity and compared with the results obtained from laboratory scale model tests. And using the result from laboratory model tests, it is studied increase effect of the bearing capacity on the granular compaction piles and variance of coefficient of consolidation for the ground.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.105-117
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• 2002

In the design of foundations for the super-structures such as transmission towers and oil-platforms, the foundations must be considered as a medium to resist cyclic tensile forces. In this study, the uplift capacity of the drilled shaft used as the medium resisting to this pattern of forces is investigated by performing cyclic uplift test of a small model-drilled shaft constructed in compacted granite soil in a steel chamber. In this test, the behavioral difference between a pile loaded on the top of the pile and a pile loaded at the bottom of the pile was investigated intensively. The load transfer curves obtained from the test were investigated by changing the confining pressure in the chamber. The load tests also included creep test and cyclic test. It is found from the tests that uplift capacity of the shaft loaded at the bottom is greater than that of the shaft loaded on the top of the pile. It is found also from the creep test that the pile loaded at the bottom was more stable than the shaft loaded on the top. If a pile loaded at the bottom is pre-tensioned, the pile will be most effective to the creep displacement. It is found also from the cyclic tests that apparent secant modulus obtained in a cycle of the load increases with the number of cycles.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.67-75
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• 2018

In this study, we developed a micropile equipped with ground fixing wedge device which is able to ensure the bearing capacity early before grouting by expanding the tip and exerting the tip surface friction while compressing and expanding the tip of the micropile during loading. The purpose of this study is to verify the applicability of the developed micropile to the ground with various kinds of strength and to compare its characteristics with those of the simple tip expansion micropile. A new test system including a model soil box which can measure the tip resistance and the tip skin friction separately was devised. The loading test was carried out according to the changes of the ground strength and the tip cross section using the devised test systems. As a result of the test, it was found that the developed micropile increased the tip skin friction due to the wedge horizontal force as the soil strength increased and could be applied more effectively to the ground with the strength not lower than the strength of the weathered rock. In addition, it was found that additional bearing capacity could be obtained due to the tip cross section expansion and the wedge horizontal force exertion even in the ground with the strength below the weathered rock strength.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.55-66
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• 2013

The experiment of model soil structures has been executed for the soil retaining wall in various conditions of excavation, in this study, to analyze the behavior of the corner of opening. The ground for experiment has been constituted with the sandy soil of relatively loose density, the construction condition has been divided into the opening length of corner, embedded depth, existence of strut, etc., and the excavation has been carried out for 4 stages in total. The behavior characteristics at the corner of opening area has been verified by concentrate analysis of the displacement of wall and the subsidence of ground surface, for each construction and excavation condition, using the measuring instrument mounted inside the model soil structure. In the result of experiment, it has been analyzed that the opening area of corner is unstable structurally compared to the linear area, as it shows that the wall displacement and subsidence of ground surface have been increased when the opening length of corner gets longer. The longer the embedded depth, ground surface settlement of coner was decreased 40%. To apply deeper embedded depth than designed estimate was an advantage in the safety. As a result of the analysis of coner behavior with added struts, maximum surface settlement and maximum horizontal displacement was evaluated 40% and 30%, respectively. Hence increased embedded depth with the added struts in coner edge was effective in the safety.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.35-43
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• 2017

In this study, the pull-out resistance behavior of the anchor with the bump type resistors at the anchor body was experimentally investigated. In the model tests, the pull-out resistance was measured by pulling out the anchor at a constant speed. Anchor body was installed in the center of the circular sand tank. Pull-out tests were conducted for 10 conditions. The anchor type (existence of the resistor), the friction conditions of the anchor body surface ($1/3{\phi}$, $2/3{\phi}$, ${\phi}$), the bump type resistor set number (1set, 2set, 4set), and the height of resistors (0.05d, 0.10d, 0.20d) were varied. The load-displacement relationship for each conditions was measured during the pull-out tests at a constant speed (1 mm/min). Maximum pull-out length was 80 mm. As a result, the pull-out behavior of the friction type anchor and the expansion type anchor was different. As the number of resistor increased, the maximum pull-out resistance increased and the residual pull-out resistance ratio increased significantly, which were at 171~591 percent larger than that of the friction type anchor.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.35-45
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• 2007

It is known that the response of piles is affected by the shape of pile as well as soil conditions. In order to investigate the characteristics of the axial responses and bearing capacities of non-displacement tapered and cylindrical piles in sands, 12 model pile load tests using a calibration chamber were conducted on model tapered and cylindrical piles, which were specially manufactured to measure the base and shaft load capacities independently. Results of the model tests showed that the shaft load of tapered piles continuously increased with pile settlement, whereas the shaft load of cylindrical piles reached ultimate values at a settlement equal to 4% of pile diameter. Therefore, taper piles have greater shaft loads than cylindrical one at the same settlement. It is also observed that the total load capacity of tapered piles is lower than cylindrical piles for dense sand but is greater than that of cylindrical piles for medium sand. The ultimate unit base resistance of tapered piles was greater than that of cylindrical piles for lateral earth pressure ratio greater than 0.4, and the shaft resistance was greater than that of cylindrical piles irrespective of lateral earth pressure ratio.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.29-36
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• 1995

Load testis are executed on model reticulated root piles (RRP) to figure out the optimum slanting angle in the piles installation. One set of model RRP consists of 8 slanting piles which are installed in circular patterns forming two concentric circles, each of which is made by 4 piles. Each pile which is a steel bar of 5m in diameter and 300mm in length is coated to become a pile of 6.5mm in diameter. The slanting angle of the model RRP varies from 0$^{\circ}$ to 20$^{\circ}$ Comparing ultimate bearing capacities of the model RRP of different installation angles, it is observed that the ultimate capacities of the RRP increase as the installation angle increases until 15$^{\circ}$, and the optimum slanting angle of the RRP is around 15$^{\circ}$ The ultimate bearing capacity of the 15$^{\circ}$-RRP is found to be 22% bigger than that of the vertical RRP and 120% bigger than that of the circular surface footing whose diameter is same with the circle formed by outer root piles'heads. However, it is noticed that when the slanting angle of the RRP is increased over 15$^{\circ}$, the ultimate capacity starts to be reduced. The ultimate capacity of 20$^{\circ}$-RRP is even smaller than that of the vertical RRP by as much as 5%. From the observation of the load settlement curve obtained during the RRP load tests, it is known that as the slanting angle gets bigger the load -settlement behavior becomes more ductile.