• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.21-28
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• 2021

The factors of landslides depend on rainfall intensity, duration, and the characteristics of the soil slope. The conventional slope stability analysis has been carried out by assuming that the slope is saturated. But, a site slope consisting of unsaturated ground must be imitated and interpreted in order to explain a proper behavior of the slope due to rainfall. In this study, by using two major categories of soils in Korea, such as granite and gneiss weathered soils, landslide model test and numerical analysis have been compared with the difference of seepage and volumetric water content. In general, the permeability of gneiss weathered soil, which contains a lot of fines content, is slower than that of granite weathered soil. As a result, in extreme rainfall, numerical analysis can show results that can penetrate quickly, resulting in saturation or more dangerous collapse.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.41-47
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• 2013

Well-graded and dense soils have good engineering properties. Unsaturated soil properties such as shear strength, compressibility and permeability are closely related to the soil-water characteristic curve of the soil. Therefore it is important to study the effects of the coefficient of uniformity and the porosity on the soil-water characteristic curve of the sandy soils, which are also related to the grain size distribution and the density of the soil, respectively. In this study soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs) for six sandy soil specimens were investigated using Tempe pressure cells. The test data were best-fitted to Fredlund and Xing equation. The obtained fitting parameters and the characteristic points of SWCCs were discussed and correlated with the porosity and the coefficient of uniformity of the specimens. The results show that the smaller the porosity of the specimen becomes, the larger the value of the residual matric suction becomes, whereas the larger the coefficient of uniformity of the specimen becomes, the larger the value of the residual matric suction becomes. Regardless of the coefficient of uniformity, the smaller the porosity of the specimen, the flatter the max. slope of SWCC.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.1017-1025
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• 2013

The monolithically coupled finite element analysis for a deformable unsaturated soil slope is performed to investigate matric suction distribution on a soil slope subjected to rainfall infiltration, which can consider the hydraulic-mechanical characteristics for the analysis. The soil-water characteristic curves (SWCC) are experimentally determined to estimate three types of hydraulic properties of domestic areas. Based on the physical properties, the distribution of matric suction is investigated by considering the major factors, such as soil conditions, rainfall intensities, and slope angles. It is found from the results of this study that the matric suction rapidly decreases with an increase in rainfall intensity, regardless a slope angle. The slope surface is more easily saturated when its saturated hydraulic conductivity is smaller than rainfall intensity, and for the case of multi-layered soil slope, hydraulic characteristics of slope surface has a significant influence on matric suction distribution.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.27-34
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• 2011

This study analyzes the determination of slope failure model due to changes in ground condition followed by heavy rainfall. With a simulated rainfall system, the movement of a slope from the rainfall penetrating the unsaturated soil is investigated with respect to various conditions of pore-water pressure, earth pressure, and moisture content, considering rainfall duration and permeability. As a result of the experiment, under the persistent precipitation of 50mm/h, pore-water pressure of weathered granite soil started increasing from the upper position of the slope, and then the pressure increased in middle and bottom portion of it in timely manner. In case of the pore-water pressure of the standard soil, the pressure increased from the middle and bottom portion, and the cause of the different order is suspected to be the difference in permeability between the standard soil and the weathered granite soil. As an outcome, though the result may vary by each foundation, there exists a danger of slope failure not only when the cumulative rainfall is more than 120 mm but also when the saturation level amounts to 60~75%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.362-369
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• 2005

Studying unsaturated soil mechanics, determination of soil water characteristic curve and permeability equation is an essential factor but it is not easy. In this research a new testing apparatus was developed to determine soil water characteristic curve and permeability equation. The testing to get saturated permeability coefficients and soil water characteristic curves for two soils was performed by using the developed testing apparatus. First, a saturated permeability testing was performed and then the testing to get soil water characteristic curve of a drying process was performed. Next, the testing to get soil water characteristic curve of a wetting process was performed. Testing results showed hysteresis phenomena between soil water characteristic curve of a drying process and soil water characteristic curve of a wetting process. The permeability equations were determined by a theoretical method where a saturated permeability coefficient and a soil water characteristic curve were used.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2004.03b
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• pp.334-341
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• 2004

The coefficient of permeability is one of the most important properties in unsaturated soils. The permeability varies with change in the water content as the soil water characteristic curve(SWCC) does. Thus the permeability curve of unsaturated soils has the similar shape with the soil-water characteristic curve(SWCC). Therefore, the methodologies have been studied to simply predict the unsaturated permeability from the SWCC. In this study, the experimental tests of SWCC and permeability were carried out for domestic weathered granite soils. The SWCC test results were fitted to Fredlund and Xing's SWCC equation and then it was found that there are some relationships between the parameters of SWCC equation and the basic soil properties. Accordingly we used an ANN(artificial neural network) model to obtain the SWCC parameters from the basic soil properties. Finally, the coefficients of permeability were predicted from these results by a prediction model.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.59-70
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• 1992

This work is to study experimentally the measurment of pore air pressure according to rainfall in colluvium model and the characteristics of pore water pressure according to increasement of artesian ground water head. After modeling a geological feature of the Tertiary formation, the experiment was performed about sixty times on three kinds of soil. This experimental results showed the variation of pore water and pore air pressures with time, the change of void ratio and appling pressure head in the nonsaturated soil. It can be also expressed by the final pore water and the air reaction ratios and then formularizing the relationship between the permeability coefficient and the void ratio. In the results of this experiment, the patterns of the pore water pressure reaction are classified by the step-type and the wave-type, and the time-lag to reach final point of pore water pressure is in order sand, sandy silt and clayey sand.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2013

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function is one of key parameters to solve the flow phenomena in problems of landslide. Prediction models for hydraulic conductivity function related to soil-water retention curve equations in many geotechnical applications have been still used instead of direct measurement of the hydraulic conductivity function since prediction models from soil-water retention curve equations are attractive for their fast and easy use and low cost. However, many researchers found that prediction models for the hydraulic conductivity function can not predict the hydraulic conductivity exactly in comparison with experimental outputs. This research introduced an inverse analysis to evaluate the hydraulic conductivity function corresponding to experimental output from the flow pump system. Optimisation process was carried out to obtain the hydraulic conductivity function. This research showed that the inverse analysis with flow pump system was suitable to assess the hydraulic conductivity in unsaturated soil, and the prediction models for the hydraulic conductivity were led to the significant discrepancy from actual experimental outputs.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2005

A set of soil samples were picked up from a failed slope formed by rainfall in limestone zone in Jangseong-gun, Jeonnam, Korea, to find out its physical and mechanical characteristics for this study, and variation of safety factor depending on slope inclination was defined by analysing slope stability affected by rainfall. Decomposed limestone soil in the research area is composed of quartz, orthoclase, gibbsite, geothite, etc., with specific gravity of 2.73, and this soil is included in SC by unified soil classification system. Calcium ingredient decreased remarkably during weathering at its mother rock. Coefficient of permeability is 2.56×10/sup -4/ cm/ sec, similar to its value of silty clay. Cohesion decreases remarkably from 3.0 t/ ㎡ to 0.72 t/ ㎡, and Φ value of internal friction angle tends to decrease as it turns to be saturated soil from partial saturated soil in the shear test. To analyze slope stability affected by rainfall, it is reasonable to seek seepage depth with reference to rainfall＊ intensity. In the slope stability analysis, when the seepage depth is the larger, its safety factor is the less, which makes the slope unstable. Comparing with minimum safety factor, 1.5 of cut slope in consideration of the seep-age line, safety factor is found to be satisfactory only when inclination of cut slope of decomposed limestone soil is more than 1：1.2 slope at least considering rainfall. It is also found that decrease of cohesion has great effect on decline of safety factor of slope while partial saturated soil turns to be saturated soil.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.99-112
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• 2019

Rainfall infiltration through the unsaturated zone is influenced by a range of factors including topography, geology, soil, rainfall intensity, temperature and vegetation; the actual infiltration varies largely in time and space. The infiltration capacity of soil is a critical factor in identifying groundwater recharge and leakage of surface water. It may differ depending on soil types and geological features of a particular basin or territory as well as on the usage of the land. This study was conducted in forest and farmland region of the mid-mountain area (EL. 50~300 m) of Jeju Island to test soil infiltration capacity of the area where rainfall contributes to groundwater. Results were analyzed using the four soil group classification methods presented by Jeong et al. (1995) and NAS (2007) to discover that the method offered by NAS (2007) is more reliable in the mid-mountain area of Jeju Island. The study compares and reviews the existing classification methods using the results of infiltration capacity tests executed on different soil groups throughout the whole region of the Jeju mid-mountain area. It is expected that this work will serve as a guideline for evaluating surface water recharge and hydraulic characteristics of Jeju Island.