• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.4 no.1 s.12
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• pp.25-31
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• 2004

Infiltration of rainfall causes railway embankment to be unstable and may result in failure. Basic relationship between the rainfall and stability of railway embankment is defined to analyze the stability of embankment by rainfall. An experimental study for defining of infiltration rate of rainfall into slope is conducted in the lab. The results of Rainfall Infiltration show that rainfall Infiltration is not equal to infiltration as like reservoir because rate of rainfall infiltration is controlled by slope angle. Based on these results, boundary condition of rainfall is altered and various numerical analysis are performed. The variation of shear strength, the degree of saturation and pore-water pressure for railway slope during rainfall can be predicted and the safety factor of railway slope can be expressed as the function of rainfall amount, namely rainfall index. Therefore, it is judged that this rainfall index can be a good tool for the rail-transport operation control.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.35-42
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• 2012

This paper evaluates the effect of anisotropic conductivity on the seepage face and reliability index of an homogeneous dam with and without toe drain. The analysis are conducted under steady state saturated-unsaturated seepage condition using finite element method. Various anisotropic conductivity ratios were interpreted under such conditions as the vertical conductivity is reduced while the horizon conductivity is fixed. The shear strength of soil is defined by the modified Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. The analysis results demonstrate that the length of seepage face and reliability index at the downstream and upstream of the dam increase with an increasing anisotropic ratio. These results of the seepage face and reliability index, however, depend on the total head difference between the upstream slope and downstream toe. The difference in seepage face and reliability index is attributed to the different equipotential head with different anisotropic ratios of the dam material.

• 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.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 1996

The current practice in construction of reinforced earth retaining walls is to use a granular soil for the backfill material. When the material is available in site, the construetion cost can be remarkably reduced. As the weathered granite soils are abundant and widely distributed throughout the Korean peninsula: whether they are suitable or not as the backfill material is considered to be the most important key in economic construction of the wall. This paper investigates the grain size distribution of the weathered soils which locate at many places throughout the nation and then examines limitation of their use based on the specifications of different countries. The variaton of shear strength with both different fine contents and saturation is also investigated. It is known that the grain size distribution of most weathered soils are not satisfied with the general requirement. However their use is possible in wide range when the backfill keeps in unsaturated condition using good drainage facilities and 1 or pervious reinforcements.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.96-104
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• 1981

In order to investigate the characteristics of the shear strength of the unsaturated cohesive soils which has mean characters of sand and clay widely used for banking, I selected soil samples from An-sung district and, against it, performed direct shear test and unconfined compression test changing grain size, compaction energy and moisture content and also performed triaxial compression test under optimum moisture content. The results are as follows; 1.As the passing percent of the No. 200 sieve increased from 23.6% to 56.1%, cohesion increased from 0. 202kg/cm2 to 0. 398kg/cm2 under the direct shear test and from 0.38 kg/cm2 to 1. 05kg/cm2 under the tria4al compression test, internal friction angle decreased from 44. 78$^{\circ}$ to 34. 34$^{\circ}$ under the direct shear test and from 31. 88$^{\circ}$ to 13. 31$^{\circ}$ under the triaxial compression test. 2.Cohesion showed it's maximum value around OMC and internal friction angle showed a tendency to increase according to the decrease of water content but it's increasing ratio was relatively slow. 3.Decreasing ratio of cohesion and internal friction angle was relatively sensitive according to the decrease of compaction energy. 4.The smaller of the vertical stress and the coarser of the grain size of samples, changing of the volume showed a tendency to increase and as the increase of water content, the shear displacement (dh) at failure shear stress ($\tau$f) showed maximum and the $\tau$f-dh curve was gentle. 5.To synthesize the results of the direct shear test and the triaxial compression test, cohesion showed higher under the triaxial compression test and internal friction angle showed a tendeney to appear higher under the direct shear test. It seems that we can get correspondent results by removing the side friction of mold with soils and adjusting the vertical stress and shearing speed under the direct shear test.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.23-32
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• 2008

This paper presents the results of numerical investigation on the stability of reinforced earth wall during rainfall. A series of limit-equilibrium based slope stability analyses within the framework of unsaturated shear strength, coupled with transient seepage analyses, were conducted with due consideration of rainfall characteristics in Korea. It is shown that the factor of safety of the reinforced wall during rainfall decreases with time due to decreases in the suction in the reinforced as well as retained zones. Also revealed is that the decrease in the factor of safety depends not only on the backfill soil type but also on the rainfall characteristics. Practical implications of the findings were discussed.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.91-100
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• 2012

Soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs), which represent a physical property in partially saturated soils, show the relation between volumetric water content and matric suction. The SWCCs exhibit hysteresis during wetting and drying, however experimental expressions used to describe SWCCs have generally ignored the hysteresis. In addition, the shape of SWCC may depend on the void ratio which is changed by soil skeleton deformations or hysteretic behavior under various loading conditions. Hence, it is necessary to understand, both empirically and analytically, the relationship between soil skeleton deformations and the SWCCs of various soils. The typical SWCCs experimentally have drying, wetting, and the second drying curve. The measurement of a complete set of hysteretic curves is severely time-consuming and difficult works, then the first drying curve of SWCC is generally determined to estimate the hydraulic conductivity and shear strength function of partially saturated soils. This paper presents the hydraulic-mechanical behavior of partially saturated soils (weathered soil and silty soil) for volume changes and hysteresis in SWCCs regarding the difference between the first drying and wetting curve.