• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.47-59
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• 2008

Application of mechanically stabilized earth wall (MSEW) abutment has been rapidly increasing in United States of America, Pennsylvania since 2002. MSEW is effective for reducing construction cost and period compared to general concrete reinforced wall. In the paper, theoretical background and conventional criterion of MSEW abutment that is widely used abroad are analyzed. Based on the results, application of suitable MSEW abutment to domestic bridge type is examined. For the application of MSEW abutment in Korea, load interacting with upper shoe in domestic bridge types and structural analyses of beam seat and pile are investigated. As a result, all applications are possible except for PSC BOX Bridge that has heavy self-weight of girder. Through two and three dimensional numerical analyses, horizontal behaviour mechanisms between pile and MSEW were analyzed and field tests are also carried out for seven piles behind earth walls. From results of field tests, it is confirmed that an angle of internal friction of backfill material needs to be greater than 34 degree to use H-Pile as foundation of MSEW.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.97-108
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• 2021

In bridge abutment structures, lateral squeeze due to lateral stress of embankment placement and thermal movement of the bridge structure leads to failure of approach slabs, girders, and bridge bearings. Recently, GRS (Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil) integral bridge has been proposed as a new countermeasure. The GRS integral bridge is a combining structure of a GRS retaining wall and an integral abutment bridge. In this study, numerical analyses which considered construction sequences and earthquake loading conditions are performed to compare the behaviors of conventional PSC (Pre-Stressed Concrete) girder bridge, traditional GRS integral bridge structure and GRS integral bridge with bracket structures (newly developed LH-type GRS integral bridge). The analysis results show that the GRS integral bridge with bracket structures is most stable compared with the others in an aspect of stress concentration and deformation on foundation ground including differential settlements between abutment and backfill. Furthermore, the GRS integral bridge with/without bracket structures was found to show the best performance in terms of seismic stability.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.263-274
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• 2018

In this study, the applicability and external/internal stability of a MSEW abutment with a slab were investigated. Structural analysis of slab bridges between 10 ~ 20.0 m and thicknesses of 0.7 ~ 0.9 m was carried out to calculate the reaction forces due to dead and live loads acting on the bridge supports. The slab bridge with a length of 20.0 m satisfied the allowable contact pressure of 200 kPa for the true MSEW abutment. Because the external stability of the true MSEW abutment was dominated by the geometry of the MSE wall, the change in the factor of safety due to the load of the super-structure is small. Because the stiffness of the foundations is fixed and the load of the super-structure is increased, the factor of safety of the bearing capacity was reduced. As the load of the super-structure was increased, the horizontal earth pressure of the true MSEW abutment increased greatly. As a result, the pullout and fracture of the uppermost reinforcement, which are the factors of safety, did not meet the design criteria. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the pullout resistance and the long-term allowable tensile force of the reinforcement placed on the top of the reinforced soils to ensure efficient design and performance of a true MSEW abutment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.594-601
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• 2019

A true MSEW abutment is an abutment type that directly supports the load of a superstructure. Metal strips, which are in-extensile reinforcements, should be used to minimize abutment deformation. A study to derive the application conditions of a True MSEW abutment was carried out by Zevogolis(2007). As a result, the pullout factor of safety of the uppermost reinforcement was estimated to be the smallest. Therefore, the pullout factor of safety of the uppermost reinforcement is the most important design factor. Parameter analysis was conducted with the abutment length, abutment heel, and abutment height as variables. The pullout factor of safety increased with increasing abutment length and abutment heel length. This is because the contact area increases and the superstructure is dispersed as the abutment length and abutment heel length increase. The pullout factor of safety converges at an abutment length of 1.2m and an abutment heel length of 0.9m. This is because the effective length of the reinforcement is reduced due to the increase in contact area. On the other hand, the extension of the superstructure will increase if the abutment length and abutment heel length are increased excessively. In addition, earth-volume is increased if the abutment height increases excessively. This acts as an upper load on the MSE wall. Therefore, it needs to be examined carefully.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.895-898
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• 2008

This research paper intends to investigate and review the new technology of patent registration trend for the most recent domestic retaining wall and bridge abutment, and to apply the technology appropriately to the actual retaining wall and bridge abutment construction. Investigated new technological patents for retaining wall include pre-fabricated PC retaining wall construction method that reduces section force with prestressed PS steel bars, pre-fabricated Coupler-Tension retaining wall, clay reinforced retaining wall block for road, earth reinforced retaining wall block that induces uniform settlement, and etc. Investigated new technologies for abutment are abutment construction method that uses sheet pile, monolithic bridge with complex abutments, construction method for abutment bridge, earth reinforced abutment structure and etc.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.750-757
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• 2018

The mechanically stabilized earth wall abutment is an earth structure using a mechanically stabilized earth wall and it uses in-extensional steel reinforcements having excellent friction performance. In order to analyze the pullout behavior of in-extensional steel reinforcements usually applied on the mechanically stabilized earth wall abutment, effects of stiffness and particle-size distributions of backfills and also horizontal spacings were considered in this study. As a result of parametric analyses, the highest pulling force acted on the uppermost reinforcement, and the stiffness and the particle-size distributions of the backfill significantly affected the pulling resistance of the reinforced soils. The internal friction angle of backfills should be at least 25 degrees, the coefficient uniformity factor should be at least 4, and the horizontal spacing of the uppermost steel reinforcement should be less than 25cm. Therefore, in order to secure the pullout resistance of the reinforced soil, it is necessary a properly spacing of reinforcement and more strict quality control for the backfill.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.510-519
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• 2019

In this study, the structural analysis was conducted to the comparison of reaction force and contact pressure on the design truck load (DB-24 and KL-510) of slab bridge supported by MSEW abutment. As a result of the structural analysis, the reaction force acting on the abutment at the continuous bridge was reduced rather than the simple span bridge. The reaction force due to the dead load was estimated to be about twice as large as that of the live load, and the influence of the live load on the total reaction force was relatively small. The contact pressure of the MSEW abutment was estimated to be the largest in the simple span bridge. The influence of contact pressure on the type of live load was relatively small. Therefore, it is considered to be more advantageous to apply the MSEW abutment to the continuous bridge than to the simple span bridge because the contact pressure acting on the abutment on the continuous bridge is estimated to be small. Since the reaction force and the load sharing ratio acting on the MSEW abutment depending on various conditions, it is necessary to examine the contact pressure in various types of bridges and specifications.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.105-112
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• 2011

This paper presents the numerical modelling technique for modeling the time-dependent behavior of geosynthetic reinforced soil wall under a sustained load. The applicability of power law-based creep models for modeling the creep deformations of geogrid and reinforced soil was first examined. The modeling approach was then used to simulate the long-term performance of a geosynthetic reinforced soil wall used in a bridge abutment. The results indicated that the power law-based models can be effectively used for modelling the long term behavior of geosynthetic reinforced walls under sustained loading. In addition, it was shown that, when using creep deformation susceptible backfill soils, the abutment wall and the sill beam may experience deformations exceeding allowable limits. Practical implications of the findings from this study are discussed in great detail.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.15-26
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• 2010

This paper presents the results of a three-dimensional finite element analysis on a geosynthetic-reinforced bridge abutment. Examples on the use of mechanically stabilized earth bridge abutment in north America are first presented. A three-dimensional finite element analysis on a 4.8 m high, 14 m wide geosynthetic-reinforced bridge abutment was performed to investigate the 3D behavior of the geosynthetic-reinforced bridge abutment and the load carrying capacity of the bridge abutment in the three-dimensional space. The results are then presented in a way that the three-dimensional behavior of the abutment can be identified in terms of wall displacements and reinforcement forces. It is shown that the wall facing displacements as well as the reinforcement forces in the abutment are smaller than those computed based on a plane strain approximation.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.59-64
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• 2018

The damages to the reinforced earth retaining wall are divided into the front wall, foundation, drainage and upper slope. Damage of reinforced earth retaining wall is mainly caused by damage caused by drainage problem in the field. Recently, damage caused by snow removal materials have been occurred. Recently, the amount of snow removal materials used in winter is increasing due to abnormal weather. This chlorides degrades the concrete structure, where the reinforced earth retaining wall was no exception. There has recently been a case in which the front wall of the reinforced earth retaining wall deteriorates due to the chlorides introduced into the back filling portion through the drainage passage. Therefore, in this study, the cause of damages of reinforced earth retaining wall constructed in bridge abutment was analyzed, and an analytical study was conducted on the countermeasure. As a result, it was found that chlorides, which was introduced through the drainage system in the expansion joint of the bridge shift part or the upper structure, is infiltrated into the back part of the reinforced earth retaining wall and damaged. Therefore, it is suggested to improve the drainage system and restored the stiffness of the front wall.