• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.43-54
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• 2006

The scope of this paper covers the applications of bender element tests in consolidation, tomography, and liquefaction. Loading and unloading time during consolidation are evaluated based on shear wave velocity. As S-wave velocity is dependent on effective stress, the loading step may be determined. However, cautions are required due to the different mechanism between the settlement and effective stress criteria. The stress history may be evaluated because the S-wave shows the cement controlled regime and stress controlled regimes. A fixed frame complemented with bender elements permits S-wave tomography The tomography system is tested at low confinement within a true triaxial cell. Results show that shear wave velocity tomography permits monitoring changes in the velocity field which is related to the average effective stress. To monitor the liquefaction phenomenon, S-wave trans-illumination is implemented with a high repetition rate to provide detailed information on the evolution of shear stiffness during liquefaction. The evolution of shear wave propagation velocity and attenuation parallel the time-history of excess pore pressure during liquefaction. Applications discussed in this paper show that bender elements can be a very effective tool for the detection of shear waves in the laboratory.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2008

In this study, cyclic shear characterics of sand-clay mixtures were analyzed. In order to perform cyclic triaxial tests on sand clay mixtures, natural clays with activity and silica sand were mixed variously to reproduce soils with wide range of grain size compositions. Test specimens with various fines contents were prepared by the moisture compaction and pre-consolidation methods, while paying attention to the void ratio expressed in terms of the sand structure and clay structures, and undrained cyclic shear tests were performed. In the test results, cyclic shear strength decreased with increasing of sand granular void ratio below 20% of fine contents. When the granular void ratio of the test specimen exceeded the maximum void ratio of the silica sand, the clay matrix dominated the soil structure, and soil structures were not influenced by compaction energy. It was observed that, the matrix structure of the coarse particles has great effect on the undrained cyclic shear strength characteristics for sand-clay mixtures, and therefore, it is more appropriate to pay more attention to the density of the sand structure, rather than to the fines content.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.77-86
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• 2007

Installation damage of 3 types of geogrids was evaluated with compaction condition by laboratory tester. This experimental was in accordance with ENV ISO 10722-1. First, soil distribution and water content were conducted. And then we changed cyclic loading time and type of geogrids as a factor of installation damage. The samples are woven, warp-knitted, welded type of 6, 8, 10T. This study aims to give an insight into the relationships between installation damage and cyclic loading time. The result of studies was that strength of the damaged geogrids can be closely correlated with the time of loading cycles. Especially, welded type shows slower slope than two types of geogrids due to coating materials. That means welded type is coated with PP (Polypropylene), but the other two types of geogrids are coated with PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride). To confirm another factor different method was performed. The size of soil was used between 9.5 mm and 23.5 m to compare initial experimental. Cyclic loading compaction is taken 200 times before installation test and the reason is that the reduction factor of this case by installation damage was higher than other compaction loading conditions.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.3C
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• pp.201-207
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• 2006

Soil tests are generally conducted using a membrane to measure a pore water pressure. However, it has also been recognized that the membrane penetrates into the specimen by the change of the confining pressure, and it results in the erroneous measurement in the pore water pressure and the volumetric strain. This study examined the effectiveness of the correction equation of the membrane penetration on the basis of the experimental data acquired during the isotropic unloading and the cyclic shear process using the hollow cylindrical shear test equipment. The results showed that the membrane penetration by the correction equation could be overestimated when the mean effective stress was lower than 20kPa in this study. The limitations originated from the sudden increase near the zero effective stress, and in order to prevent the overestimation in low effective stress condition, the use of the constant a was proposed in this study. Furthermore, the correction equation for the membrane penetration had to be applied carefully when the initial relative density was high and the density changes were occurred by the relocation of the soil particle by the liquefaction.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.307-314
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• 2016

Shear characteristics of soils can be investigated using various types of shear stress measuring apparatus. Ring shear tests are often applied for examining the residual shear strength under the unlimited deformation. This paper presents drainage-consolidation-shear velocity dependent undrained shear strengths measured in terms of water leakage. A series of ring shear tests were performed under the constant normal stress (50 kPa) and controled shear velocity ranging from 0.01~1 mm/sec under the undrained condition. As a result, undrained shear strengths are dependent on shear velocity. It exhibits that straining hardening behavior is observed for the shear velocity lower than 0.1 mm/sec; however, the strain softening behavior is observed for the shear velocity higher than 0.1 mm/sec. Water leakage can cause the increase in shear stress irrespective of shear velocity. Shear stress increases with increasing amount of water leakage. It is due to the fact that the small grains and water flow out through the rubble edge in the ring shear box. Repetitive saturation and consolidation processes may minimize the error.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.55-62
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• 2010

The settlements by liquefaction seldom occur uniformly because of soil homogeneity, however differential settlements are major cause of the damages to structures. From the past researches, author paid attention to the fact that stress history during undrained cyclic shear process affects greatly on the volumetric strains of the post-liquefaction. Therefore, the effect of the residual shear strain in cyclic shear process was examined in this study. The experiment apparatus based on strain control with volumetric strain control device was used for the study to investigate the effect of the residual strain on the relationship between volumetric strain and effective stress of clean and granite sandy soil. It could be seen an insignificant difference in the volumetric strain after liquefaction under various residual shear strain conditions in the case of clean sand. On the other hand, in granite sandy soil, the volumetric strain after liquefaction was small when the lower level of the residual shear strain was applied. And, the residual shear strain during cyclic shear affected the shape of the relation curve between effective stress and volumetric strain as well.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 1993

To know the importance of soil paramters which are used to estimate the deformation and porepressure of soil, the sensitivity for soil parameters in elastic analysis is analyzed. Using the consolidation teat results of several cohesive soils, soil parameters are estimated by back analysis method, and from the parameters the deformations and porepressures of the soil are estimated by elastic analysis, In elastic analysis for soil-deformation and porepressure, the sensitivity for the Young's modulus is large, and the esimation of Young's modulus is more important in pro- portion to the size of stress. Using the measured results during initial short period in small stress, the soil parameters can be correctly estimated by back analysis method. To decrease the iteration number in back analysis and to get the better paramters, the initial measurements in more nodes are required and the more accurate initial measurements are required.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.75-83
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• 2011

Emerging issues related with fully coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical (THM) behavior of unsaturated soil demand the development of a numerical tool in diverse geo-mechanical and geo-environmental areas. This paper presents general governing equations for coupled THM processes in unsaturated porous media. Coupled partial differential equations are derived from three mass balances equations (solid, water, and air), energy balance equation, and force equilibrium equation. With Galerkin formulation and time integration of these governing equations, finite element code is developed to find nonlinear solution of four main variables (displacement-u, gas pressure-$P_g$), liquid pressure-$P_1$), and temperature-T) using Newton's iterative scheme. Three cases of numerical simulations are conducted and discussed: one-dimensional drainage experiments (u-$P_g-P_1$), thermal consolidation (u-$P_1$-T), and effect of pile on surrounding soil due to surface temperature variation (u-$P_1$-T).

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.41-48
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• 2014

Experimental study of sedimentation and self-weight consolidation has been primary research area in dredged soil. However, good quality of the dredged soil and minimum water pollution caused by the pumping of reclaimed soil require intensive study of the flow characteristics of dredged material due to dumping. In this study, continuity and the equilibrium equations for mass flow assuming single phase was derived to simulate mass flow in dredged containment area. To optimize computation and modeling time for three dimensional geometry and boundary conditions, depth integration is applied to governing equations to consider three dimensional topography of the site. Petrov-Galerkin formulation is applied in spatial discretization of governing equations. Generalized trapezoidal rule is used for time integration, and Newton iteration process approximated the solution. DG and CDG technique were used for weighting matrix in discontinuous test function in dredged flow analysis, and numerical stability was evaluated by performed a square slump simulation. A comparative analysis for numerical methods showed that DG method applied to SU / PG formulation gives minimal pseudo oscillation and reliable numerical results.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.93-101
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• 2012

SCP is a construction method that maximizes the effects of ground improvement by creating sand piles, which are formed by the compaction within soft ground. SCP is mainly used for consolidation and drain effects in clayey soils, and as a liquefaction countermeasure through effects such as compaction in loose sandy soils. In the design of SCP, if the sand piles with high stiffness are not taken into account, it can become a design that overly considered safety, and increased construction costs are highly likely to cause economic disadvantages. The changes in stress conditions and compaction mechanisms in the subsurface have been identified to a certain extent by study findings to date. However, the studies that considered SCP and in-situ ground as composite ground are fairly limited, and therefore, those studies have not achieved enough results to fully explain the relevant topics. In this study, the ground improved by SCP was regarded as the composite ground that consists of SCP and in-situ ground. Moreover, employing a CID test, this study examined the changes in the stress conditions of in-situ ground according to the installation of SCP through the relations between $K_0$ and SCP replacement ratio. At the same, whether the SCP installation procedure can be recreated in a laboratory was examined using a cyclic triaxial test. According to the test results, the changes in the stress conditions of the original ground occurred most largely in an initial stage of SCP installation, and after a certain time point, the vibration for SCP installation did not have a great influence on the changes in the stress conditions of the ground. Moreover, in order to recreate the behaviors of in-suit ground according to SCP in a laboratory, cyclic loading, which corresponds to casing vibration, was concluded to be essentially required.