• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.5-16
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• 2016

New PHC piles, where short steel pipes are attached to the pile toe, are developed to increase the base load capacity of bored pre-cast piles embedded in weathered rock. In this study, new bored pre-cast piles using the new PHC piles are installed at 7 test sites with different soil conditions, and static and dynamic pile load tests are performed to investigate quantitative characteristics on the base load capacity of new bored pre-cast piles. In addition, based on the static pile load test results, a new empirical equation for estimating the base load capacity of new bored pre-cast piles is proposed. A comparison between predicted and measured base load capacities shows that the proposed empirical equation produces conservative predictions for the new bored pre-cast piles. However, the existing design criterion significantly underestimates the base load capacity of new bored pre-cast piles.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.31-44
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• 2023

A base expansion micropile was developed to improve the bearing capacity of the micropile, which bears a simple device installed at the pile base. Under an axial load, this base expansion structure radially expands at the pile tip and attaches itself around ground, compressing the boring wall in the construction stage. In this study, conventional and base expansion micropiles were constructed in the weathered rock where micropiles are commonly installed. Further, field load tests were conducted to verify the bearing capacity enhancement effect. From the load test results, it was revealed that the shaft resistance of base expansion micropiles was about 12% higher than that of conventional micropiles. The load transfer analysis results also showed that compared to conventional micropiles, the unit skin friction and unit end bearing of base expansion micropiles were 15.4% and 315.1% higher, respectively, in the bearing zone of the micropile.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.283-293
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• 2008

A study of interactive ground behaviour due to tunnelling adjacent to existing piles has not been recognized well for the most geotechnical engineers so far. Because this is a very sophisticated boundary condition problem. In this study, therefore, the author has conducted both the laboratory model test and finite element analysis (FEA) to figure out such a complicated ground behaviour related to shear strain formations. Based on the model testing and FEA results, a boundary line which divides into two distinctive shear strain formations in relation to the locations of end-bearing pile tips was proposed. The author believes that the proposed boundary line may be helpful for planning the appropriate tunnel positions for avoiding damage of buildings which supported by piled-foundations in urban areas.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.53-63
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• 2013

Bored pre-cast piles using PHC piles is widely used in foundation of building structures constructed in urban areas because noise and vibration due to pile installation are low. However, since slime is formed at the base of borehole and the density of bearing stratum surrounding the base of borehole is decreased due to stress relaxation in drilling process of bored pre-cast pile method, the base load capacity of bored pre-cast piles is very low compared to the strength of bearing stratum. In this study, a new type of PHC pile, which short steel pipe with the same diameter as the PHC pile is attached to the pile tip, is developed to increase the base load capacity of bored pre-cast piles. In order to check the effect of the use of new PHC pile on the base load capacity of bored pre-cast piles, field pile load tests are performed for bored pre-cast piles using the new and existing PHC piles. Results of the pile load tests show that the new PHC pile gives higher base load capacity to bored pre-cast piles than the existing PHC pile, since the tip of new PHC pile is penetrated to undisturbed bearing stratum passing through the slime at the base of borehole and the loosened bearing stratum under the slime by pile driving using light hammer.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.19-31
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• 2021

Micropiles are cast-in-place piles with small diameters. The advantage of micropile is low construction expense and simple procedures, so it is widely applied to existing buildings and structures for the reinforcement of foundation and seismic performances. The base expansion structure has been developed following the original mechanism of horizontal expansion steps under compressive loading. This kind of structure can be installed at the pile end to improve the bearing capacity by tip area enlargement and horizontal force increment to the pile surface area. However, 'Micropile with base expansion structure' cannot be put into practical use, because detailed verification for the developed technique has not been conducted so far. In this research, 3-D numerical analysis was conducted to figure out the bearing mechanism of base expansion micropile and to verify the bearing capacity improvement compared to the general micropiles. 3-D modelling of micropile with base expansion structure was carried out and input parameter was determined. Bearing mechanism induced by base expansion structure was analyzed by lab-scale modelling, and bearing capacity improvement was verified by field-scale analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.5-20
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• 2011

A numerical analysis has been conducted to propose the effective installation methods of Micro-pile in a sandy soil or a soil with rock layer. As a result, the bearing capacity of reinforced soil by rigid Micro-pile has influence on a connection state of the tip of pile and surface of rock layer. But that by flexible Micro-pile has more influence on a penetration length of pile than the connection state of the tip of pile and surface of rock layer.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.67-75
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• 2018

In this study, we developed a micropile equipped with ground fixing wedge device which is able to ensure the bearing capacity early before grouting by expanding the tip and exerting the tip surface friction while compressing and expanding the tip of the micropile during loading. The purpose of this study is to verify the applicability of the developed micropile to the ground with various kinds of strength and to compare its characteristics with those of the simple tip expansion micropile. A new test system including a model soil box which can measure the tip resistance and the tip skin friction separately was devised. The loading test was carried out according to the changes of the ground strength and the tip cross section using the devised test systems. As a result of the test, it was found that the developed micropile increased the tip skin friction due to the wedge horizontal force as the soil strength increased and could be applied more effectively to the ground with the strength not lower than the strength of the weathered rock. In addition, it was found that additional bearing capacity could be obtained due to the tip cross section expansion and the wedge horizontal force exertion even in the ground with the strength below the weathered rock strength.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.37-49
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• 2021

Micropiles are widely used in construction field to enhance bearing capacity and reduce settlement of existing foundation. It has various benefits such as low construction expense, simple installation process, and small construction equipment. Recently, new microple equipped with the base expansion structure at the end has been developed to improve the foundation bearing capacity. The improvement of load capacity can be conceptually achieved by expanding the base expansion structure when a load is applied to the micropile. However, the expansion mechanism of the base expansion structure and the improvement of load capacity of the micropile were not yet experimentally validated. Therefore, in this study, a series of centrifuge model tests was performed to evaluate the effect of the base expansion structure on the improvement of load capacity. Two types of soil, sand and weathered rock, were prepared and the loading tests were performed using the real micropile with the base expansion structure. During the tests, the earth pressures surrounding the base expansion structure were monitored. As a result, when a load of 30 kN was applied to the micropile, the increase in the ratio of the horizontal to vertical pressure increment (∆σ_h/∆σ_𝜈) ranged from 0.4 to 0.58 in sand and ∆σ_h/∆σ_𝜈 = 0.19 in weathered rock, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that the increase in the horizontal earth pressure adjacent to the base expansion structure will improve the bearing capacity of the micropile.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.261-271
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• 2016

In the prediction of response of a pile in soil, numerical approaches such as a finite element method are generally applied due to complicate nonlinear behaviors of soils. However, the numerical methods based on the finite elements require heavy efforts in pile and soil modelling and also take long computing time. So their usage is limited especially in the early design stage in which principal dimensions and properties are not specified and tend to vary. On the contrary, theoretical approaches adopting linear approximations for soils are relatively simple and easy to model and take short computing time. Therefore, if they are validated to be reliable, they would be applicable in predicting responses of a pile in soil, particularly in early design stage. In case of wind turbines regarded in this study, it is required to assess their natural frequencies in early stages, and in this simulation the supporting pile inserted in soil could be replaced with a simplified elastic boundary condition at the bottom end of the wind turbine tower. To do this, analysis for a pile in soil is performed in this study to extract the spring constants at the top end of the pile. The pile in soil can be modelled as a beam on elastic spring by assuming that the soils deform within an elastic range. In this study, it is attempted to predict pile deformations and influence factors for lateral loads by means of the beam-on-spring model. As two example supporting structures for wind turbines, mono pile and suction pile models with different diameters are examined by evaluating their influence factors and validated by comparing them with those reported in literature. In addition, the deflection profiles along the depth and spring constants at the top end of the piles are compared to assess their supporting features.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2016

Rotary pile consists a single or multiple helix plate and it is installed into the ground using the rotation of the helix plate. Rotary pile in soft ground is able to be supported by pile shaft and helix plate. When the pile is installed into hard layer relatively, the end bearing capacity is possible to be increased by the lower helix plate. In this paper, small-size rotary piles were manufactured with using steel pipe which is reduced to 1/5 size of the rotary pile on the construction field. Pile load test was carried out on the foundation soil which was formed by weathered soft soil. The bearing capacity of small-scale piles depends on the number of helix plate, the length of plate diameter, and an interval of plates, respectively. The bearing capacity of pile increases about 40% with 3 helix plate and it is also confirmed that the bearing capacity is improved about 10% as the increment of plate interval.