• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.109-120
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• 1997

In the working stress conditions, the strain level in a soil mass experienced by existing structures and during construction is less than about 0.1-1%. In order to analyse the deformational behavior accurately, the in-situ testing technique which provides the reliable deformational characteristics at small strains, needs to be developed. The purpose of this paper is to measure the small-strain shear modulus of soils by using pressuremeter test(PMT). PMT is a unique method for assessing directly the in-situ shear modulus of soils with strain amplitude. For the accurate small strain measurements without initial disturbance effect, the unloading-reloading cycle was used and the measured modulus was corrected in view of the relevant stress and strain levels around the PMT probe during testing. Not only in the calibration chamber but in the field, PMT tests were performed on the cohesionless soils. The variation in shear modulus with strain amplitude ranging from 10-2% to 0.5% was reliably determined by PMT PMT results were also compared with other in-situ and laboratory test results. Moduli obtained from different testing techniques matched very well if the effect of strain amplitude was considered in the com pall son.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.2C
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• pp.51-58
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• 2009

In this study, the small strain shear moduli ($G_{max}$) of uncemented and gypsum-cemented sands are evaluated by performing a series of bender element tests on the specimens reconstituted in the calibration chamber. It is observed from the experimental results that $G_{max}$ of crushed-sands is about 35~50% smaller than that of natural sands. The increase in gypsum content is observed to result in an exponential increase of $G_{max}$ value. It is also shown that the relative density has more significant effect on $G_{max}$ of cemented sand, whereas the vertical effective stress has more significant influence on $G_{max}$ of uncemented one. A prediction equation for cemented sand is expressed as a function of gypsum content as well as void ratio and vertical effective stress.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.135-145
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• 2005

Geotechnical design routinely requires that in-situ strength, stiffness of the ground be determined. In the working stress conditions, the strain level in a ground experienced by existing structures and during construction is less than about 0.1%~1%. In order to analyze the deformational behavior accurately, the in-situ testing technique which provides the reliable deformational characteristics at small strains, needs to be developed. Cone pressuremeter tests were performed on the western off-shore region of korea, and analyzed using cavity expansion theory and curve fitting technique to obtain the shear modulus at small strain level of $10^{-1}%$. The value of $E_u/S_u$ ratio for the marine clay shows about 589 at the small strain. However the value of $E_u/S_u$ estimated by lab tests are much smaller values ranged from 81 to 91. It is indicated that the curve fitting technique from CPM tests results can be used to obtain the shear modulus at small strain.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.67-80
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• 1992

In the analysis of dynamic problem, determination of mazimun shear modulus is essential for the estimation of shear stress at any strain level. Although many models for silica sands were presented, the direct accomodation of those models to crushable sand would be difficult because of crushability during torsion. In this research dynamic behaviour of tested sand is presented. The shear modulus of loose crushable sand shows similar results to silica sand. However, as the density of crushable sand increases the shear modulus decreases because of crushability by increasing surface contact area. And modulus number is expressed in terms of state parameter by Been and Jefferies (1965).

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.295-306
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• 2010

Contrary to an intact rock, the jointed rock mass shows strain-dependent deformation characteristics (elastic modulus and damping ratio). The maximum elastic modulus of a rock mass can be obtained from an elastic wave-based exploration in a small strain level and applied to seismic analyses. However, the assessment and application of the non-linear characteristics of rock masses in a small to medium strain level ($10^{-4}{\sim}0.5%$) have not been carried out yet. A non-linear dynamic analysis module is newly developed for FLAC3D to simulate strain-dependent shear modulus degradation and damping ratio amplification characteristics. The developed module is verified by analyzing the change of the Ricker wave propagation. Strain-dependent non-linear characteristics are obtained from disks of cored samples using a rock mass dynamic testing apparatus which can evaluate wave propagation characteristics in a jointed rock column. Using the experimental results and the developed non-linear dynamic module, seismic analyses are performed for the intersection of a shaft and an inclined tunnel. The numerical results show that vertical and horizontal displacements of non-linear analyses are larger than those of linear analyses. Also, non-linear analyses induce bigger bending compressive stresses acting on the lining. The bending compressive stress concentrates at the intersection part. The fundamental understanding of a strain-dependent jointed rock mass behavior is achieved in this study and the analytical procedure suggested can be effectively applied to field designs and analyses.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3C
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• pp.179-186
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• 2008

Pressuremeter test estimates the deformational properties of soil from the relationship between applied pressure and the displacement of cavity wall. It is general to utilize the reloading curve for the estimation of deformational properties of soil because the initial loading curve can be affected by the disturbance caused by boring. On the other hand, the instrumental resolution or the variation of measured data makes it hard to estimate the maximum shear modulus from pressuremeter test results. This study suggested the methodology estimating the maximum shear modulus from pressuremeter test directly, based on the curve fitting of reloading curve. In addition, the difference was taken into account between the stress state around the probe in reloading and that of the in-situ state. Pressuremeter tests were conducted for 15 cases using a large calibration chamber, together with a number of reference tests. The maximum shear moduli taken from suggested method were compared with those from empirical correlation and bender element test.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.59-63
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• 2011

Ground dynamic parameter such as shear elastic modulus and damping ratio is a very important variable in design of ground-structure with repeated load and dynamic load. Shear elastic modulus and damping ratio on small strain below linear limit strain is constant regardless of strain. Shear elastic modulus as the maximum shear elastic modulus and damping ratio as the minimum damping ratio were considered. As a lot of experiment related to the maximum shear elastic modulus, which is in dynamic deformation characteristics, have been conducted, many factors including voiding ratio, over consolidation ratio(OCR), confining pressure, geology time, PI, and the number of load cycle affect to dynamic soil characteristic. However, the research of ground dynamic characteristic improved with grout is absent such as underground continuous wall construction, deep mixing method, umbrella arch method. In order to investigate the dynamic soil characteristics improved with grout, in this study, resonant column tests were performed with changing water content(20%, 25%, 30%) and injection ratio of grout(5%, 10%, 15%), cure time(7th day, 28th day) As a result, shear elastic modulus and damping ratio, which are ground dynamic parameter, are affected by the injection ratio of milk grout, cure time and water content.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.17-27
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• 2015

We perform a series of experimental tests to evaluate whether the shear strength of clean sands can be reliably predicted from shear wave velocity. Isotropic drained triaxial tests on clean sands reconstituted at different relative densities are performed to measure the shear strength and bender elements are used to measure the shear wave velocity. Laboratory tests reveal that a correlation between shear wave velocity, void ratio, and confining pressure can be made. The correlation can be used to determine the void ratio from measured shear wave velocity, from which the shear strength is predicted. We also show that a unique relationship exists between maximum shear modulus and effective axial stress at failure. The accuracy of the equation can be enhanced by including the normalized confining pressure in the equation. Comparisons between measured and predicted effective friction angle demonstrate that the proposed equation can accurately predict the internal friction angle of granular soils, accounting for the effect of the relative density, from shear wave velocity.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.5-14
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• 2013

Coarse granular geomaterials containing large gravels are broadly used for construction of large geotechnical systems such as dams, levees, railways and backfills. It is necessary to evaluate deformation characteristics of these materials for dynamic analysis, e.g. seismic design. This study presents evaluation of dynamic deformation characteristics of coarse materials using large scale resonant column testing apparatus, which uses specimens with 200 mm in diameter and 400 mm in height, and the effects of gradation characteristics on maximum shear modulus, shear modulus reduction curve and damping characteristics were investigated. From experimental study using rock-fill materials for a dam, we could see that the largest or mean particle size affects the shape of shear modulus reduction curve. When the specimens are prepared under the same conditions for maximum particle size, the coefficient of uniformity affects the confining stress exponent of maximum shear modulus. It could be concluded that the maximum particle size is an factor which affects shear modulus reduction curve, and that the coefficient of uniformity is for small strain shear modulus, especially for the sensitivity to confining stress.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.53-64
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• 2005

For geotechnical design in practice, soils are, in general, assumed to behave as a linear elastic or perfect plastic material. More realistic geotechnical design, however, should take into account various factors that affect soil behavior in the field, such as non-linearity of stress-strain response, stress history, and water content. In this study, a series of laboratory tests including triaxial and resonant column tests were peformed with sands of various silt contents, relative densities, stress states, OCR and water contents. This aims at investigating effects of various factors that affect strength and stiffness of sands. From the results in this study, it is found that the effect of OCR is significant for the intermediate stress-strain range from the initial to failure, while it may be ignored for the initial stiffness and peak strength. For the effect of water content, it is observed that the initial elastic modulus decreases with increasing water content at lower confining stress and relative density At higher confining stresses, the effect of water content Is found to become small.