• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.133-147
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• 2007

Downhole seismic method is very economic and easy of operation because it uses only one borehole and simple surface source to obtain the shear wave velocity ($V_s$) profile of a site. Even though it is widely used by the site investigation companies, universities and institutes, however, the $V_s$ profile determined by downhole seismic method has often low reliability due to employment of wrong combinations of field losing equipment and interpretation method and deficiency of experience. Round robin test was performed and testing equipment and procedure were compared. Adequate downhole seismic testing equipment was constructed based on the comparison and verification study of the round robin test. The data acquisition and software interpretation were also developed for automation and quick test in field. Finally, the effectiveness and applicability were verified through the field test by using the constructed testing system.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.109-120
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• 2012

In marine site surveys, drilling boreholes are restrictively conducted, while geophysical surveys are used with ease. To overcome the limitations of marine site survey, various site survey data should be collected and analysed by adopting complementary pros and cons. In this study, the integration assessment was established to digitize 2D geo-layer based on the overlapping of a few borehole data to seismic refraction tomography and to determine 3D geo-information based on the kriging for the design of offshore-foundation. And the overlapping method was proposed considering spatial variability of the tomography and separation distance from borehole position to determine the 2D geo-layer. Finally, the integration assessment was applied to offshore wind-turbine site in Jeju-do, and its applicability was verified based on the cross-validation.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 1995

A train overturn accident occurred on March 1993 in the Gupo area, northern part of Pusan, unfortunately had taken a heavy toll of lives and caused a great loss of property as well. The reasons for the subsidence of the basement under the railroads, which presumed to be the main cause of the accident, have been investigated from many different angles, including conventional geotechnical investigation methods. The deduced nuin reasons of the subsidence were: 1. blasting for tunnel excavation (NATM) at about 39 meter under the railroads, and 2. unexpected change of bedrock conditions along the direction of tunnel. But this accident was derived nrranlv from the lack of geological and geotechnical information under railroad area because it was impossible to drill beneath the railroads. This paper introduces a new geophysical survey techniqueseisrnic geotomography, and shows some results of the method applying to investigate the underground structure of the accident area. This method not only overcomes the unfavourable environment which many conventional investigation methods cannot face, but produces an image of underground structure with high resolution. Furthermore, the outputs from geotomogaphic analysis could provide very valuable in-situ basic parameters (like seismic velocities, elastic moduli, etc.) which is essential to the design and construction.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.19-28
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• 2007

In this study, we propose a joint inversion method, using genetic algorithms, to estimate an S-wave velocity structure for deep sedimentary layers from receiver functions and surface-wave phase velocity observed at several sites. The method takes layer continuity over a target area into consideration by assuming that each layer has uniform physical properties, especially an S-wave velocity, at all the sites in a target area in order to invert datasets acquired at different sites simultaneously. Numerical experiments with synthetic data indicate that the proposed method is effective in reducing uncertainty in deep structure parameters when modelling only surface-wave dispersion data over a limited period range. We then apply the method to receiver functions derived from earthquake records at one site and two datasets of Rayleigh-wave phase velocity obtained from microtremor array surveys performed in central Tokyo, Japan. The estimated subsurface structure is in good agreement with the results of previous seismic refraction surveys and deep borehole data. We also conclude that the proposed method can provide a more accurate and reliable model than individual inversions of either receiver function data only or surface-wave dispersion data only.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.174-179
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• 1999

Shear wave velocity, one of major elastic constants in the dynamic design for civil structures, is conventionally measured from downhole, crosshole or sonic logging tests. SASW (Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves) method, which overcomes the disadvantage of the in-hole tests, can evaluate subsurface stiffness nondestructively and nonintrusively through measuring surface waves on surface. In this paper, principles of the SASW method are briefly described and the results of various field tests, conducted to investigate the applicability of the method, are summarized. The SASW method was successfully applied in evaluating the effects of dynamic compaction at Inchon international airport site, applied in evaluating the integrity of the lining and sidewall at a testing tunnel located in Mabukri, and applied in detecting thickness of a concrete retaining wall. The results of field tests and the nondestructive and economical characteristics of the method show the promising future of the SASW method in civil engineering projects.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.507-522
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• 2021

Specific survey objectives often cannot be met using only one geophysical method, as each method's results are influenced by the specific physical properties of subsurface materials. In particular, areas susceptible to geological hazards require investigation using more than one method in order to reduce risks to life and property. Instead of analyzing the results from each method separately, this work develops a four-quadrant criterion for classifying areas of levees as safe or weak. The assessment is based on statistically determined thresholds of seismic velocity (P-wave velocity from seismic refraction and S-wave velocity from multichannel analysis of surface waves) and electrical resistivity. Thresholds are determined by subtracting the standard deviation from the mean during performance testing of this correlation technique applied to model data of four horizontal and inclined fracture zones. Compared with results from the crossplot of resistivity and P-wave velocity, crossplot analysis using resistivity and S-wave velocity data provides more reliable information on the soil type, ground stiffness, and lithological characteristics of the levee system. A loose and sandy zone (represented by low S-wave velocity and high resistivity) falling within the second quadrant is interpreted to be a weak zone. This interpretation is well supported by the N values from standard penetrating test for the central core.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.153-162
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• 2019

Rapid variations in the geometry (i.e., thickness) of the refractor and low velocities affect greatly the imaging of the reflectors of land seismic data. Conventional solutions to obtain the weathering models utilizes first break picking method, which requires time consuming steps and causes the human error in picking the first arrivals. A new interferometric approach (interferometric refraction statics, IRS) which utilizes the first arrival signal (S/N enhanced by refraction convolution stack) instead of first break picking, is tested in this study to the synthetic data from the velocity structure provided by surface geophysics (refraction, MASW) and borehole geophysics (tomography, SPS logging) for the Cheongju granitic bodies. The results of IRS approach are found to be better than the ones from conventional first break picking in terms of continuities and horizontal resolution of the reflectors. The unresolved long-wavelength statics in brute stack are much removed by IRS weathering correction and the overlying refractors (the base of shallow weathering zone) are incidentally delineated in the refraction convolution stack.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.227-233
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• 2011

Attention has been focused on geothermal energy as an alternative energy because it is continuously operable without external supply. Most of geothermal anomalies in Korea are related to deep circulation of groundwater through a fracture system in granite area. Therefore it is very important to understand the distribution of the fracture system which is the main channel of ground water. In this research, we constructed the velocity models with a fracture system and the layered sediments, respectively, and generated synthetic data sets with them to verify the presented vertical seismic profiling (VSP) preprocessing scheme. We compared the results from conventional VSP preprocessing flow to those from VSP preprocessing flow considering fracture system. We noticed that the preprocessing flow considering fracture system retains more sufficient signal including down-going wave than conventional preprocessing. In addition, we applied 3D VSP prestack phase screen migration to the preprocessed reversed VSP (RVSP) data from Seokmo Island so that we were able to image fracture structure of the geothermal site in Seokmo Island.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.163-174
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• 2001

For quantitative evaluation of geotechnical engineering properties such as rippability and diggability, clear interpretation on the subsUJiace velocity structures should be preceded by figuring out top soil, weathered and soft rock layers, shape of basement, fracture zones, geologic boundary and etC. from the seismic refraction data. It is very important to set up suitable field parameters, which are the configuration of profile and its length, spacings of geophones and sources and topographic conditions, for increasing field data Quality. Geophone spacing of 3 to 5m is reconunended in the land slope area of house land development site. In refraction tomography technique, the number of source points should be more than a Cluarter of available channel number of instrument and the subsurface structure interpretation can be decreased the artifact of inversion by topographic effect. Compared with core logging data, it is shown that the velocity range of the soil is less than 700m/s, weathered rock 700~1,200m/s, soft rock 1,200~1,800m/s on the velocity tomogram section. And the upper limit of P-wave velocity for rippability is estimated 1,200 to 1,800m/s in land slope area of gneiss.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.25-39
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• 2015

$CO_2$ geological storage plays an important role in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but there is a lack of research for CCS demonstration. To achieve the goal of CCS, storing $CO_2$ safely and permanently in underground geological formations, it is essential to understand the characteristics of them, such as total storage capacity, stability, etc. and establish an injection strategy. We perform the impedance inversion for the seismic data acquired from the Ulleung Basin in 2012. To review the possibility of $CO_2$ storage, we also construct porosity models and extract attributes of the prospects from the seismic data. To improve the quality of seismic data, amplitude preserved processing methods, SWD(Shallow Water Demultiple), SRME(Surface Related Multiple Elimination) and Radon Demultiple, are applied. Three well log data are also analysed, and the log correlations of each well are 0.648, 0.574 and 0.342, respectively. All wells are used in building the low-frequency model to generate more robust initial model. Simultaneous pre-stack inversion is performed on all of the 2D profiles and inverted P-impedance, S-impedance and Vp/Vs ratio are generated from the inversion process. With the porosity profiles generated from the seismic inversion process, the porous and non-porous zones can be identified for the purpose of the $CO_2$ sequestration initiative. More detailed characterization of the geological storage and the simulation of $CO_2$ migration might be an essential for the CCS demonstration.