• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.143-154
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• 2016

This study investigated the occurrences, causes, and mitigation of the recent ground subsidence and underground cavity generation events in Korea. Two main causes of ground subsidence are (1) the soil erosion by seepage during tunneling and earth excavation and (2) the damage of underground pipes. The main cause of the soil erosion during tunneling was the uncontrolled groundwater flow. Especially, when excavating soft grounds using a tunnel boring machine (TBM), the ground near TBM operation halt points were found to be the most vulnerable to failure. The damage of underground pipes was mainly caused by poor construction, material deterioration, and differential settlement in soft soils. The ground subsidence during tunneling and earth excavation can be managed by monitoring the outflow of groundwater and eroded soils in construction sites. It is expected that the ground subsidence by the underground pipe damage can be managed or mitigated by life cycle analysis and maintenance of the buried pipes, and by controlling the earth pressure distribution or increasing the bearing capacity at the upper ground of the buried pipes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2017

Recently, increasing cases of ground subsidence in the urban area has become social issue, and related bill has been passed. Ground subsidence occurs through complex combination of various factors, and numerical analysis of this problem is limited thereby. This is why verification of ground subsidence mechanism has been conducted through physical modelling. Previous researches has been focused on modelling ground subsidence caused by utility pipe defects, and there has been insufficient physical modelling study on ground subsidence caused by various reasons such as groundwater flow and excavation activity. Also, most previous physical modelling studies were performed in 1g condition, which cannot take the in-situ stress condition into the evaluation of the ground subsidence mechanism. Therefore, in this study, physical modelling techniques to simulate various conditions is discussed by studying the previous researches on the ground subsidence mechanism through physical modelling. Also, centrifuge modelling test is suggested in this study as the technique to perform more reliable evaluation of ground subsidence mechanism. Lastly, this study suggests to apply the techniques used in the evaluation of ground subsidence mechanism into Ground Stability Assessment.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.135-148
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• 2021

Ground subsidence risk ratings obtained from the site investigation during pre-excavation stages could be changed depending on the parameters revealed during construction activities. A method of correcting the pre-excavation ground subsidence risk ratings based on the site conditions observed in the field is suggested in this study. The elevation of groundwater table during the excavation may be different from the predicted value depending on the application of waterproofing methods and construction conditions. The drastic drawdown of groundwater table during the excavation could cause ground subsidence due to soil volume decrease related to consolidation or compression of the ground, whereas the rising of groundwater table caused by the intense rainfall may result in a high potential for ground subsidence due to heaving or boiling of the excavation bottom. Excessive displacements of retaining walls or ground settlements may cause ground subsidence, which also results in a high risk of ground subsidence caused by the destruction of buried pipelines. Reevaluation of ground subsidence risk ratings is suggested considering the fluctuation of groundwater table, condition of groundwater leakage, measured ground displacements, and soil types. Finally, the ground subsidence risk rating system is improved for better evaluation by using 12 factors in 5 categories.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Construction Safety
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to propose a system improvement plan to prevent ground sinking accidents. To do this, follow the procedure below. First, it defines terms that are used interchangeably, such as ground subsidence and ground depression. Second, analysis of the current status and cause of ground sink, and the analysis of the correlation between rainfall and ground sink causes, derives priority management causes. Third, we propose a system improvement plan for the cause of priority management. As a result, damage to underground pipes and inadequate underground works were identified as the cause of priority management, and two system improvement plans to manage them were proposed. The results of this study can be used as basic data for improving the system for more effective prevention of underground sink in the future.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.143-152
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• 2017

Recently frequent occurrence of ground subsidence cases has become social issue, and people's concern on this problem has been growing accordingly. Meanwhile, understanding on the mechanism of ground subsidence formation is not enough. Therefore, this study aims for evaluating formation mechanism of ground subsidence under various groundwater conditions through model test when groundwater and soil are leaked together. Major factors found through model tests are direction of groundwater flow, head difference around the leakage point, and strehgth of the ground to support the underground cavity. Firstly, direction of groundwater flow has an influence on the direction of cavity expansion and ground collapse. Secondly, it is observed that the speed of ground subsidence formation increases as the head difference increases. Lastly, the expansion of the cavity can eventually lead to a sudden collapse.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.153-164
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• 2017

The geological factors for causing ground subsidence are very diverse. It can be affected by any geological or extrinsic influences, and even within the same geological factor, the soil depression impact factor can be determined by different physical properties. As a result of reviewing a large number of papers and case histories, it can be seen that there are seven categories of ground subsidence factors. The depth and thickness of the overburden can affect the subsidence depending on the existence of the cavity, whereas the depth and orientation of the boundary between soil and rock are dominant factors in the ground composed of soil and rock. In case of soil layers, more various influencing factors exist such as type of soil, shear strength, relative density and degree of compaction, dry unit weight, water content, and liquid limit. The type of rock, distance from the main fracture and RQD can be influential factors in the bedrock. When approaching from the hydrogeological point of view, the rainfall intensity, the distance and the depth from the main channel, the coefficient of permeability and fluctuation of ground water level can influence to ground subsidence. It is also possible that the ground subsidence can be affected by external factors such as the depth of excavation and distance from the earth retaining wall, groundwater treatment methods at excavation work, and existence of artificial facilities such as sewer pipes. It is estimated that to evaluate the ground subsidence factor during the construction of underground structures in urban areas will be essential. It is expected that ground subsidence factors examined in this study will contribute for the reliable evaluation of the ground subsidence risk.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.23-29
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• 2023

Ground subsidence shows a mechanism in which the upper ground collapses due to the formation of a cavity due to the movement of soil particles in the ground due to the formation of a waterway because of damage to the water supply/sewer pipes. As a result, cavity is created in the ground and the upper ground is collapsing. Therefore, ground subsidence frequently occurs mainly in downtown areas where a large amount of underground facilities are buried. Accordingly, research to predict the risk of ground subsidence is continuously being conducted. This study tried to present a ground subsidence risk prediction model for two districts of ○○ city. After constructing a data set and performing preprocessing, using the property data of underground facilities in the target area (year of service, pipe diameter), density of underground facilities, and ground subsidence history data. By applying the dataset to the machine learning model, it is evaluated the reliability of the selected model and the importance of the influencing factors used in predicting the ground subsidence risk derived from the model is presented.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.5-11
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• 2024

Ground subsidence mainly occurs in urban areas with high population density, so it is necessary to clearly identify the cause of occurrence and prepare in advance. The main cause of ground subsidence is reported to be the creation of cavities in the ground due to damage to underground pipes, but the property information and influencing factors of underground pipes to predict and prepare for ground subsidence are not properly established. Therefore, in this study, factors showing a significant correlation with the occurrence of ground subsidence were selected among the underground facility property information and a regression equation was proposed through logistic regression analysis. For this purpose, data on underground structures and ground subsidence history information in the target area were collected, and the target area was divided into girds of 100m x 100m in size using QGIS. The underground facility attribute information and ground subsidence history information contained within the gird were extracted. Then, preprocessing was performed to construct a dataset and correlation analysis was performed. As a result, factors excluding the year of sewer pipes and communication pipes and the average depth of communication pipes, heat pipes, and gas pipes were found to have a significant correlation with ground subsidence. In addition, a regression equation for whether ground subsidence occurred in the target area is proposed through logistic regression analysis.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2019

The road sinks in the sewer line or subway section are affected by the ground characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately identify the relationship between the soil properties and the ground motion in the area where cavities occurred in order to establish a countermeasure against the road sink. In this paper, simulation was performed by using EDEM program, which is one of the Discrete Element Method programs, for sandy soil and clayey soil, which are most common in alluvial deposits, with different locations and sizes of cavities in the underground. As a result, it was found that the sink size occurred more in the sandy soil than in the cohesive soil. Deeper and larger cavity is more likely to occur the road sink In the sand soil model while road sink in the clay model is easy to occur when the cavity is more shallower.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.35-43
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• 2017

It is a method of suppressing back ground subsidence by re-injecting groundwater back to the target ground and recovering the underground water level. In order to analyze the subsidence of the back ground due to maintaining the underground water level, indoor model experiments were conducted. Through this study, the factors influencing on the groundwater and the tendency of subsidence back ground by experiments were analyzed and the effect of ground subsidence by reinfusion of groundwater was also investigated. As a result of the subsidence analysis with considering only the influence of the underground water level, the settlement of the ground occurs as the underground water level at the time of ground excavation goes down. The closer to the back of the retaining wall, the maximum settlement occurred. Moreover, it was analyzed that the influence distance where subsidence occurs from retaining wall to the point of about 1.8 H on the basis of the ground collapse. The most effective location of water reinjection is the closet location to the back of braced-cut wall for reducing the groundwater down and also minimizing the ground settlement.