• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.5 no.4 s.19
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• pp.49-57
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to closely examine the influence of the surcharge load applied to the retaining wall through some model tests, in which wall stiffness in each stage of excavation, horizontal displacement of the retaining wall and surface displacement of the backfill according to wall stiffness and ground conditions, and change and distribution of the earth pressure applied to it were measured and their values were produced, then these values were mutually compared with their theoretical values and their values after analysis of the data obtained at the field, and they were analytically studied, in order to closely examine the influence of the surcharge load applied to the retaining wall. Findings from this study are as follows: The shape of ground surface settlement curve on the model ground under surcharge load, different from the distribution curve of regular probabilities which is of a shape of ground surface settlement under no surcharge load, appears in that settlement in an arching shape shows where the center part of surcharge load shows the maximum settlement. In examining the maximum horizontal displacement with the surcharge load applied to each stage of excavation, it occured at the point of 0.8H(excavation depth) when finally excavated. Regarding the range in which the displacement of the retaining wall increases according to application of surcharge load, the increment of displacement showed till the point of depth which is of two times of the distance of load from the upper part of the wall. Also since each displacement of the foundation plate caused by the ground surface settlement according to each stage of excavation occured most significantly at the final stage. Also since regarding wall stiffness, the wall of its thickness of 4mm(flexible coefficient $p:480m^3/t$), produced maximum 3 times of wall stiffness than its thickness of 9mm(flexible coefficient $p: 40m^3/t$), it was found out that influence of wall stiffness is so significant.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1C
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• pp.53-63
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• 2010

Since the water retention curve is considered as a major parameter to evaluate the unsaturated ground or soils, overburden pressure and clay content on soils underneath ground surface have not been considered for estimating water retention characteristics. Therefore, a need exists that the effect of overburden pressure and clay content on water retention characteristics was assessed in typical weathered soils found in Korea. Soil-Water Characteristic Curve and the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity were estimated using water retention characteristics under the condition of different overburden pressure, clay content, and de-saturation path. Then, these effects are evaluated with the results of SWCC tests from the laboratory. In addition to that, the unsaturated moisture capacity and diffusivity of each case is discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.13-24
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• 2003

This paper presents the results of investigation on the effects of foundation stiffness and surface loading on the performance of soil-reinforced segmental retaining walls using the finite element method of analysis. A parametric study was performed by varying the foundation stiffness and the location of surface loading. The results of the analyses indicate that the wall deformation and reinforcement tensile load tend to increase with decreasing foundation stiffness with little variation in the horizontal and vertical stress distributions at the back and the base of the reinforced soil zone. Also revealed is that the increment of reinforcement tensile load due to the presence of surface load may be significantly over-estimated when using the conventional approach. Furthermore, the external stability should be carefully examined when a surface loading is present just behind the reinforced soil zone. The implications of the findings from this study to current design approaches are discussed in detail.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.165-180
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• 1997

The structure such as underground external walls of buildings, conduit and box culvert supports the surcharge loads (point, strip and line loads) . The vertical and horizontal stresses in a soil mass depend on the backfill width and wall friction, etc. The investigations described in this paper is designed to identify the magnitude and the distributions of the lateral and vertical pressure which is occurred by the narrowly backfilled soil in an open cut by the surcharge loads. For these purposes, model tests were performed for various width of backfill in a model test box by considering the wall friction using carbon rods. The results of test were compared with the theories of Weissenbach and VS Army Code and also with the results of the numerical analysis using finite difference method which introduces Mohr-Coulomb failure hypothesis.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.53-60
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• 2010

The comprehensive tests on unsaturated weathered granite soils are carried out to obtain the soil-water characteristic curve that is the one of the essential requisites to study the unsaturated soil. The weathered granite soils were obtained at Palgong mountain in Daegu. The existing test results have been carried out without overburden pressures and volume changes. In this study, the volumetric pressure plate extractor is improved to consider two factors such as overburden pressure and volume change. The applied overburden pressures were 0, 25, 50, 75, 100kPa and volume changes were measured at each phase. he results of this study are summarized as follows: As the overburden pressure increases, the volumetric water content decreases at the same matric suction and the air entry value increases and gradient of curve at the transition zone and the size of the hysteresis loops decreases. As the overburden pressure increases, the degree of saturation increases at the same matric suction and degree of saturation of the wetting curve is higher than that of dry curve. The SWCC with volume changes are slightly larger than those without volume changes. The general equation proposed by Fredlund & Xing(1994) to fit the experimental result of the SWCC indicates good agreement. The empirical parameters a, n, m as overburden pressure show similar inclination as the existing results.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 1999

This study presents an analytical method of estimating the developed horizontal active thrusts against GRS-RW( Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall) system adapted to the case of distanced surcharge. In addition, the design charts that could be used for preliminary design of GRS-RW system are presented. The proposed method of analysis uses two body translation mechanism as well as force polygon concept. taking into account the effect of facing's rigidity. Besides. the effect of tension cracks in c-\Phi$ soils, seismic effects and horizontal distance from the back face of wall to uniformly distributed surcharge loadings are also included. The results of horizontal active thrusts obtained from the developed method of analysis are compared with those from Jarquio's modified Boussinesq equation.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.139-149
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• 2019

For retaining wall designs, horizontal earth pressure induced by traffic loads over the walls is calculated based on equivalent uniform pressure height. The AASHTO LRFD design standards propose equivalent uniform pressure height of traffic loads; however, the equivalent uniform pressure height is calibrated using the US standard trucks. As the domestic standard trucks are different from the US standard trucks, in this study, new domestic equivalent uniform pressure height is proposed using the Boussinesq theory varying vehicle directions, Poisson's ratios of pavement layers, and retaining wall height. The proposed equivalent uniform pressure heights are generally higher than those proposed by the AASHTO design standards because the axle loads and their densities of two domestic standard trucks are higher than those of the US standard trucks. The most highest equivalent uniform pressure height was found for traffic direction perpendicular to longitudinal direction of retaining wall.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.83-97
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• 1999

This paper presents the results of a parametric study on the interaction between buried pipes and surface load using the finite element method of analysis. A series of laboratory model tests were also performed in order to validate the adopted finite element model and to capture essential features of the physical behavior of buried pipes subjected to surface load. In the parametric study, a wide range of boundary conditions were analyzed with emphasis on the response of the buried pipes to surface load. The results of analysis such as contact stress distribution at the soil/pipe interface and axial thrust of the pipe were thoroughly analyzed, and a database on the response of buried pipe under surface load was established for future development of a semi-empirical design/analysis method. The results indicated that the degree of interaction between buried pipes and surface load significantly varies with the vertical and lateral location of pipe with respect to surface load, and that the current design method, which does not consider soil-structure interaction, cannot correctly capture the pipe response to surface loading. Furthermore, based on the results of analysis, a semi-empirical equation was suggested, which estimates the maximum pipe thrust due to surface load for flexible buried pipes.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.51-60
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• 2010

Earth pressure due to gravity generally increases linearly with the depth, but the distribution of earth pressure due to surface load depends on the loading condition, the ground condition, and the boundary condition. In this study, the earth pressure on a rigid wall due to the vertical surface load was measured in experiments. Rigid wall was built in the model test box, and it was filled with homogeneous sandy ground (width 30 cm, height 88 cm, length 110 cm). Rigid wall was composed of 8 segments, which were tested on the two load cells. In the tests, we observed the distribution of the earth pressure on the rigid wall depending on the vertical surface load and it's location. According to the test results, the lateral earth pressure due to the vertical surface load showed its maximum value at a constant depth and decreased with the depth, to the negligible value at the critical depth. The critical depth and the depth at which lateral earth pressure reaches its maximum were not decided by the magnitude of the vertical surface load. They were dependant on the distance from the rigid wall.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.55-65
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• 2009

It has been well known that the infiltration of rainfall causes major surfacial slope failures in Korea. However, the hydrological and mechanical behaviors in unsaturated slopes are somewhat complex. When an analysis on unsaturated slope problems is performed, soil-water characteristics curves (SWCC) are considered as major parameters to apply. Since the weathered soil slopes are layered and stressed by overburden pressures, the response of SWCCs should account for its overburden pressure. To deal with this situation, in this study, laboratory testings were conducted to evaluate the SWCC under various overburden stress. In addition, the unsaturated shear strength was estimated using SWCC. Then the performance of unsaturated weathered soil slopes was evaluated under various conditions after applying the effect of overburden pressure on SWCCs. The results demonstrated that the effect of overburden pressure on SWCC could be substantial and the proper application to analysis is very important to enhance the prediction of slope stability.