• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.1D
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• pp.83-90
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• 2011

A need still exists that the unsaturated condition is to be considered when evaluating the infiltration and drainage capacity for compacted geomaterials in road foundation or embankments. For this reason, numerical analysis were used to analyze the time-dependent unsaturated infiltration and drainage condition depending on various geomaterial types. Therefore, laboratory data from the soil-water characteristic curve tests on geomaterials were adopted from previous studies. In addition, the unsaturated permeability was estimated using SWCC. Then the infiltration and drainage performance of unsaturated compacted soils were evaluated under various conditions based on the proposed method. The results demonstrated that the effect of initial suction and SWCC path on each material could be substantial and the proper application on analysis is very important to enhance the prediction on each capacity.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.1D
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• pp.73-82
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• 2011

Generally, an unsaturated condition was not considered to predict the long-term strength and drainage behaviors on compacted road foundations. However, it is logical way to consider the unsaturated condition and hysteresis behavior on road foundations like subbase and subgrade. For more quantitative analysis, rational experimental approach requires proper laboratory tool and material model, and hydraulic properties of pavement geomaterials under unsaturated conditions. In this study, therefore, laboratory data from the soil-water characteristic curve tests were used to predict suction and unsaturated permeability on pavement foundations and the results were analyzed based on the nonlinear fitting model considered. In addition to that, the unsaturated moisture capacity of each material is discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.75-82
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• 2003

This paper presents the results of a study that was performed to evaluate fronds of shear strength parameters in stabilization of unbound soil-aggregate systems based on the theory of unsaturated soil mechanics. Two important shear strength parameters, effective cohesion and effective angle of internal friction were estimated by the proposed approach using the results from suction measurements and unconfined compressive strength test. In addition, the effect of different addition rates of stabilizing agent was compared. Due to the stabilization process, an increase in suction potential on engineering properties of geomaterials was observed by using dielectric constant measurements. In conclusion, the results from this study show that the proposed approach can be simply used for predicting shear strength parameters of the stabilized geomaterials.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4D
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• pp.571-576
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• 2011

In general, conventional road pavements are designed under the assumption that the shear strength of geomaterials are under saturated state. In reality, however, most of the pavement geomaterials exists under the unsaturated state. To deal with this gap between saturated and unsaturated conditions, in this paper, unsaturated shear strength was estimated using the results from the triaxial compression test and soil-water characteristics curves. Then, yield loads were assessed using 2-Dimensional finite element method with the selected nonlinear elastic model and the Mohr-Coulomb yield criteria. In addition, various unsaturated condition and surface layer effects on the yield load of granular materials were identified. Therefore, the results demonstrated would provide a possibility to estimate bearing capacity of paved or unpaved roads using unsaturated soil mechanics.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.5-13
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• 2018

Recently, construction disasters in thawing season are increasing due to the ground collapse and it is related to the improper compaction during winter season. Compaction at sub-zero temperature reduces the compaction effect and the research of mechanical properties of thawed soil after winter compaction can be used as useful data to understand the behavior of the ground in the thawing season. On the other hand, the research interest in the unsaturated soil mechanics has been increasing in the field of the geotechnical engineering. Therefore, it is expected that the research of unsaturated characteristics under the compaction of sub-zero temperature and freezing & thawing condition provides information to the researchers in the related fields. Therefore, in this research, unsaturated soil-water characteristics test and unsaturated uniaxial compression test were conducted on the specimens compacted at sub-zero temperature and continuous freezing & thawing condition to investigate change of unsaturated characteristics and matric suction. Based on the test results, the change of matric suction and the decrease of strength and stiffness were observed with the freezing & thawing conditions. Especially in case of the weathered soil, the strength and matric suction were significantly reduced with lower temperature and more repetition of freezing & thawing cycles. This result implies that compaction of sub-zero temperature and freezing & thawing cycles will have a considerable influence on the stability of the ground.

• 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 Geotechnical Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.123-133
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• 2001

Since most of soil slopes are in an unsaturated state, it is necessary to consider the unsaturated characteristics of soil slopes, in order to obtain more reasonable results. Therefore in this study we supplemented a slope stability analysis program to consider them, based on the concept of limit equilibrium. We also applied an optimization technique to search for a failure surface. Besides, we carried out experiments to obtain the unsaturated soil properties required in the analysis with weathered granite soils. We formulated a nonlinear apparent cohesion relationship with the matrix suction to be able to apply the unsaturated shear strength characteristics to the stability analysis. In addition, we intended to obtain more accurate soil water characteristic curves(SWCC) by measuring the change in volume of the specimen in the SWCC tests. As a result, we could appropriately assess the change of the safety factor according to the rainfall intensity and duration, by considering the variation of suction, permeability, and shear strength caused by the infiltration of rainfall into slopes.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.43-54
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• 1995

The aim of the work described in this paper is to develope a constitutive model for the prediction of an unsaturated soil and to confirm the application'of the model, which is composed of the elastic and plastic part in consideration of the matric suction and the net mean stress. From test results, volume changes and deviator stresses are analyzed at each state and their relationships are formulated. The application of the model to silty sands is confirmed by the comparison between test and predicted results. During drying -wetting and loading -unloading processes for isotropic states, the agreement between predicted and test results are satisfactory. Predicted deviator stresses are well agreed with test results in shearing process. Overall acceptable predictions are reproduced in high confining pressure. Usefulness of the model is confirmed for the unsaturated soil except volumetric strain, which is not well agreed with the test results due to deficiency of dilatancy of the model in low confining pressure. It is, therefore. recommended to study the behavior of dilatancy for an unsaturated soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.69-75
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• 2014

The shear strength characteristics of an unsaturated earth material are highly important not only for evaluating the seepage characteristics but also the stability of levee for a lifelong. In this study, unsaturated strength characteristics of Nak-dong river sand and clay that frequently used for the levee construction in southern province of Korea were analyzed using unsaturated triaxial compressive test. The strength characteristics due to the variation of matric suction were analyzed using multi-stage compression technique and the results were directly compared with the non-linear formulation for the apparent cohesion ($C_{max}$), and the friction component ${\varphi}^b$ were determined and evaluated from the test for the application of linear Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria. Cohesion and friction characteristics of the unsaturated levee material under various suction phases were also explored during this study.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.73-83
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• 2006

Seepage analysis through unsaturated zone based on the theory of unsaturated flow is commonly performed to evaluate dam safety. However, the concepts of unsaturated soil behavior have not been transferred into the hands of practicing geotechnical engineers since the problems involving unsaturated soils often have the appearances of being extremely complex. There is variability and uncertainty associated with the unsaturated hydraulic properties that in turn will lead to variability in predicting unsaturated soil behavior such as seepage rate and the pore water pressure distribution. In this paper, measurements of the soil-water characteristic curve and saturated hydraulic conductivity for the core material of dam were conducted. Then, finite element stochastic analysis was used to capture the effect of unsaturated hydraulic properties on the seepage behavior of dam. It is observed that the amount of seepage increases, as the values of unsaturated soil parameters a and n increase. The values of m and p showed opposite trend.