• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.171-178
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• 2008

Compressive strength of concrete has been regarded as a very important parameter of the quality control both in new and existing concrete pavement. It has been used a lot as the concrete strength evaluation both in the various-mixture-using laboratory and construction field using the same mixture. An error usually occurs in the test experiments of the strength, even in the test experiments with evenly mixed and compacted specimens of the compressive strength. It is caused by the 'manually operated' compressing testing, or by the specimens preparation with eccentricity. When compressive strength of evenly mixed concrete is investigated by the curing ages at the construction field, there have to be lots of specimens. And it needs much labor and cost. To substitute the endlessly repeated test experiments of compressive strength, presumption of compressive strength, by nondestructive tests, is needed. In this study, elastic waves were used among various nondestructive tests. Compressive strength of concrete was presumed according to the curing ages, by using the shear wave velocity which is not affected by restricted conditions. In the result, shear wave velocity is very closely related to the compressive strength at the evenly mixed concrete.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.41-51
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• 2012

Soils are commonly unsaturated in the near surface. The stiffness of soils is affected by the amount of air and water. The objective of this study is to evaluate the porosity of the unsaturated soils by using the elastic waves including compressional and shear waves. The elastic waves are measured at different degrees of saturation by controlling the matric suction. Thus, the unsaturated soils are characterized at different levels of the matric suction. Shear and compressional waves are measured by using the bender elements and the piezo disk elements, respectively. Both transducers are installed on the walls of the rectangular cell. The unsaturated soils are prepared by using uniform size sands and silts. Test results show that both compressional and shear wave velocities change according to the matric suction. The elastic modulus, the shear modulus, and the Poisson's ratio are estimated based on the measured elastic wave velocities. In addition, the void ratio of the unsaturated soils estimated using elastic wave velocities matches well with the volume based void ratio. This study demonstrates that the elastic waves can be effectively used for the characterization of unsaturated soils.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.145-150
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• 2011

Variations of physical properties such as weight loss rate, wave velocity and uniaxial compressive strength after performing freeze-thaw cyclic test were measured in order to define weathering characteristics of sandstone and andesite. Weight change in specimens of the two rocks decreased with increasing the repetition number of freeze-thaw cyclic test. In particular, weight loss of andesite specimens was very irregular. P-wave velocity of sandstone specimens decreased more than 5%. On the other hand, P-wave velocity of andesite specimens do not vary up to 500 cycles and decreased more than 5% after 1000 cycles. This implies that the sandstone are easily weakened and loosened by weathering processes, while the andesite are relatively strong. In addition, the wave velocity changes of the andesite specimens coincident with the weight change. Uniaxial compressive strengths of the sandstone specimens slightly decreased at the early stage of the freezing-thawing cyclic test, then tended to be irregular after 64 cycles. In conclusion, the rock specimens showed smaller weight loss, less had lower strength reduction rate.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.1063-1075
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• 2013

The strength of frozen soils is one of the significant design parameters for the construction in frozen ground. The properties of frozen soils should be investigated to understand the strength of frozen soils. The objective of this study is to figure out the characteristics of elastic waves in frozen soils, which reflect the constituent and physical structure of frozen soils in order to provide fundamental information of those according to the degree of saturation. Freezing cell is manufactured to freeze specimens, which are prepared with the degree of saturation of 10%, 40%, and 100%. Piezo disk elements are used as the compressional wave transducers and Bender elements are used as the shear wave transducers. While the temperature of specimens changes from $20^{\circ}C$ to $-10^{\circ}C$, the velocities, resonant frequencies and amplitudes of the compressional and shear waves are investigated based on the elastic wave signatures. Experimental results reveal that the elastic wave velocities increase as the degree of saturation increases. The variation of resonant frequencies coincide with that of elastic wave velocities. A marked discrepancy in amplitudes of compressional and shear waves are observed at the temperature of $0^{\circ}C$. This study renders the basic information of elastic waves in frozen soils according the degree of saturation.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.26-32
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• 2009

Although the number of blasting operations in urban area are growing, lesser attentions have been paid to the effects of impact load on nearby concrete structures. In this study, the properties of concrete were obtained by both the sonic velocity and Schmidt rebound tests, and the degree of damage in concrete material was evaluated by measuring the sonic velocity in sample before and after applying the impact load. The test results shows that the sonic velocity decreases with the increase of intensity of impact load, and the degree of damage in concrete samples is lower when the samples have higher strength and sonic velocity.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.111-122
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• 2014

For accurate laboratory evaluations of soil deposits, it is essential that the samples are undisturbed. An artificial ground-freezing system is the one of the most effective methods for obtaining undisturbed samples from sand deposits. The objective of this study is to estimate the shear strengths and the characteristics of elastic waves of frozen-thawed and unfrozen specimens through the undrained triaxial compression test. For the experiments, Jumunjin standard sands are used to prepare frozen and unfrozen specimens with similar relative densities (60% and 80%). The water pluviation method is used to simulate the fully saturated condition under the groundwater table. When thawing the frozen specimens, the temperature is measured every minute. After the specimens are completely thawed, undrained triaxial compression tests are conducted using the same procedures as for the unfrozen specimens. During the triaxial tests (saturation, consolidation, and shear phase), compressional and shear waves are measured. The results show that the freeze-thaw process has minor effects on the peak deviatoric stress and shear strength values, and that the process does not affect the internal friction angle. The compressional wave velocity increases with increasing B-value to 1800 m/s in the saturation phase, but tends to remain constant in the process of consolidation and shearing. The shear wave velocity decreases with increasing B-value in the process of saturation, but changes velocity in accordance with the change in effective stress in the processes of consolidation and shearing. The compressional wave velocity has similar values regardless of the freeze-thaw process, but values of shear wave velocity are slighly lower in frozen-thawed specimens than in unfrozen specimens. This study is a preliminary experiment for estimating the shear strength and characteristics of elastic wave velocity in undisturbed frozen specimens that have been obtained using the artificial ground-freezing method.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.249-258
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to attain the correlation analysis and thereby to deduce the uniaxial compressive strength of rock specimens through the elastic wave velocity and the elastic modulus among the physical characteristics measured from the rock specimens collected during drilling investigations in Seoul and Gyeonggi region. Method: Experiments were conducted in the laboratory with 119 granite specimens in order to derive the correlation between the compressive strength of the rocks and elastic wave velocity and elastic modulus. Results: In the case of granite, the results of the analysis of the interaction between the compressive strength of a rock and the elastic wave velocity and elastic modulus were found to be less reliable in the relation equation as a whole. And it is believed that the estimation of the compressive strength by the elastic wave velocity and elastic modulus is less used because of the composition of non-homogeneous particles of granite. Conclusion: In this study, the analysis of correlation between the compressive strength of a rock and the elastic wave velocity and elastic modulus was performed with simple regression analysis and multiple regression analysis. The coefficient determination ($R^2$) of simple regression analysis was shown between 0.61 and 0.67. Multiple regression analysis was 0.71. Thus, using multiple regression analysis when estimating compressive strength can increase the reliability of the correlation. Also, in the future, a variety of statistical analysis techniques such as recovery analysis, and artificial neural network analysis, and big data analysis can lead to more reliable results when estimating the compressive sterength of a rock based on the elastic wave velocity and elastic modulus.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.45-55
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• 2009

The quality of railroad trackbed fills has been controlled by field measurements of density and bearing resistance of plate-load tests. The control measures are compatible with the design procedures whose design parameter is $k_{30}$ for both ordinary-speed railways and high-speed railways. However, one of fatal flaws of the design procedures is that there are no simple laboratory measurement procedures for the design parameters ($k_{30}$ or, $E_{v2}$ and $E_{v2}/E_{v1}$) in design stage. To overcome the defect, the compressional wave velocity was adopted as a control measure, in parallel with the advent of the new design procedure, and its measurement technique was proposed in the preliminary investigation. The key concept of the quality control procedure is that the target value for field compaction control is the compressional wave velocity determined at optimum moisture content using modified compaction test, and direct-arrival method is used for the field measurements during construction, which is simple and reliable enough for practice engineers to access. This direct-arrival method is well-suited for such a shallow and homogeneous fill lift in terms of applicability and cost effectiveness. The sensitivity of direct-arrival test results according to the compaction quality was demonstrated at a test site, and it was concluded that compressional wave velocity can be effectively used as quality control measure. The experimental background far the companion study (Park et al., 2009) was established through field and laboratory measurements of the compressional wave velocity.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.57-66
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• 2009

In the preliminary investigation (Park et al., 2009), the use of compressional wave velocity and its measurement techniques were proposed as a new quality control measure for trackbed fills. The methodology follows exactly the same procedure as the density control, except the density being replaced by the compressional wave velocity involving consistently with resilient modulus of design stage. The specifications for the control also include field compaction water content of optimum moisture content ${\pm}2%$ as well as the compressional wave velocity. In this sequel paper, crosshole and resonant column tests were performed as well direct-arrival method and laboratory compressional wave measurements to verify the practical applicability of a methodology far the new quality control procedure based upon compressional wave velocity. The stress-modified crosshole results reasonably well agree with the direct-arrival values, and the resonant column test results also agree well with the field crosshole results. The compressional wave velocity turned out to be an excellent control measure for trackbed fills both in the theoretical and practical point of view.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.269-281
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• 1994

Microscopic study and X-ray diffraction analysis were carried out to find out rock type, tock forming minerals; and weathering characteristics of rocks at the constructing site of the churyong Tunnel, Kyongju-Gun, Kyongbuk. Seismic velocity and compressional strength were measured to evaluate mechanical properties of rock. The rock of the study area is Jurassic tuff consisting of clay minerals, crystals of quartz and feldspar, fragments of volcanic rocks and shale. Fresh tuff has compressional strength of about $443kg/\textrm{cm}^2$ and seismic velocity of about 3680m/sec in average. It is classified as soft rock. Rock fragment within tuff is andesite and it has compressional strength of about $2500kg/\textrm{cm}^2$ and seismic velocity of about 4340m/sec in average. It is classified as hard rock. A good linear relationship is found between compressional streangth and seismic velocity in both laboratory sample and in-situ rocks. Laboratory samples has seismic velocities faster about 1.5km/sec than those in-situ rocks. It is interpreted that joints, fractures, and water content in the in-situ rocks result in decreas of seismic velocity. As Tuff has more than 50% of clay minerals in matrix and shale fragments, it absorbs water easily in atmospheric condition. Therefore, though the rock in the study area is medium hard rock before weathering, it is weathered very easily in the case of exposure to natural environment, comparing with other rock.