• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.1509-1521
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• 2013

Social demand for the stability of structures lead to the development of the technology to accomplish it. The non-destructive seismic technique, which is able to assess structural integrity of infrastructures, belongs to this category. Seismic technique is focused on the measurement of seismic velocity propagating through the material, and has to utilize sensors coupled to material surface, which does not allow the testing to be performed on the fly. In this paper, a general vocal microphone, which works as a non-contact sensor, was adopted to facilitate seismic testing with mobility and efficiency improved. The target of using microphones was oriented toward quality assessment of compacted subgrade, stiffness evaluation and health monitoring of concrete structures. Experimental parametric study and field applications were performed to investigate reliability and efficiency of microphones. Finally, the optimal test configuration of microphones was suggested for resonance tests and surface-wave tests.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.193-206
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• 2006

Among various borehole seismic testing techniques for determining body wave velocity, crosshole seismic method has been known as one of the most suitable technique for evaluating reliably geotechnical dynamic properties. In this study, to perform successfully the crosshole seismic test for rock as well as soil layers regardless of the groundwater level, multi-purposed spring-loaded source which impact horizontally a subsurface ground in vertical borehole was developed and applied at major facility sites in Korea. The geotechnical dynamic properties were evaluated by determining efficiently the body wave velocities such as shear wave velocity and compressional wave velocity from the horizontally impacted crosshole seismic tests at study sites, and were provided as the fundamental parameters for the seismic performance evaluation and seismic design of the target facilities.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.293-307
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• 2012

Shear wave velocity is commonly invoked in explaining geophysical phenomena and in solving geotechnical engineering problems. In particular, the importance of shear wave velocity in geotechnical earthquake engineering has been widely recognized for seismic design and seismic performance evaluation. In the present study, various insitu seismic tests were performed to evaluate geotechnical dynamic characteristics at 183 sites in Korea, and shear wave velocity profiles with depth were determined to be representative of the dynamic properties at the investigated sites. Subsurface soil and rock layers at the target sites were reclassified into five geotechnical layers: fill, alluvial soil, weathered soil, weathered rock, and bedrock, taking into account their general uses in geotechnical earthquake engineering practice. Average shear wave velocity profiles for the five geotechnical layers were obtained by synthesizing the shear wave velocity profiles from seismic tests in the field. Based on the profiles, a representative shear wave velocity value was determined for each layer, for use in engineering seismology and geotechnical earthquake engineering.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.387-395
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• 2011

According to the seismic design criteria for structural buildings in Korea, the ground is classified into 5 types based on the average shear wave velocity measured from elastic wave tests on site and seismic load applied to the structure is estimated. However, elastic wave tests in site, however, on the engineering fill, cannot be performed during the construction period. Therefore, to evaluate shear wave velocity considering field conditions, resonant column (RC) and torsional shear (TS) tests are performed and compared with various elastic wave test results. As a result, if confining pressure for the tests using engineering fill are considered properly, we can obtain similar results comparing with those of elastic wave tests. In addition, by considering the effect of maximum shear modulus and confining pressure by RC/TS tests, n values shows typical values ranging from 0.434 to 0.561 so that utilization of RC/TS tests can be useful to infer shear modulus in field.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.309-323
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• 2005

Dynamic stiffness of subsurface materials is one of the most important geotechnical parameters in predicting deformational behavior of structures as well as practicing seismic design and performance evaluation. In an effort to measure the parameter efficiently and accurately, various borehole seismic testing techniques have been, thus, developed and used during past several decades. Moreover, recent rush of underground-space projects and increasing size of structures put more stress on reliable site investigation techniques in estimating stiffness of rock mass. In this paper, a new technique called 'in-hole seismic test' has been implemented to measure the dynamic stiffness of rock masses at subsurface foundations and tunnel-faces. The reliance of in-hole seismic test was evaluated by comparing the testing results at several rock sites with those of other borehole techniques and the technique tunnls out to be an efficient and accurate in-situ testing technique.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2008

Shear wave velocity($V_S$), which can be obtained using various seismic tests, has been emphasized as representative geotechnical dynamic characteristic mainly for seismic design and seismic performance evaluation in the engineering field. For the application of conventional geotechnical site investigation techniques to geotechnical earthquake engineering, standard penetration tests(SPT) and piezocone penetration tests(CPTu) together with a variety of borehole seismic tests were performed at many sites in Korea. Through statistical modeling of the in-situ testing data, in this study, the correlations between $V_S$ and geotechnical in-situ penetrating data such as blow counts(N value) from SPT and piezocone penetrating data such as tip resistance ($q_t$), sleevefriction($f_s$), and pore pressure ratio($B_q$) were deduced and were suggested as an empirical method to determine $V_S$. Despite the incompatible strain levels of the conventional geotechnical penetration tests and the borehole seismic tests, it is shown that the suggested correlations in this study are applicable to the preliminary estimation of $V_S$ for Korean soil layers.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.215-224
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• 2003

Weathering in nature was simulated by freeze-thaw cyclic test which represents mechanical weathering. Measured physical properties were elastic wave velocities, absorption rate, volume change and weight change. Uniaxial compression tests were also conducted before and after the weathering tests. The change in weight and volume of the specimens were not clearly related to the weathering process, but P, S wave velocities, uniaxial compression strength and Young's modulus were clearly decreased as weathering progresses. Test result can be used for the assessment of long-term stability of rock slopes.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.4 s.50
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• pp.1-13
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• 2006

Soil and rock dynamic properties such as shear wave velocity $(V_s)$, compressional wave velocity $(V_p)$ and corresponding Poisson's ratio (v) are very important geotechnical parameters in predicting deformational behavior of structures as well as practicing seismic design and performance evaluation. In an effort to measure the parameter efficiently and accurately, various bore-hole seismic testing techniques have been, thus, developed and used during past several decades. In this study, cross-hole seismic testing technique which is known as the most reliable seismic method was adopted for obtaining geotechnical dynamic properties. To perform successfully the cross-hole test for rock as well as soil layers regardless of the ground water level, spring-loaded source which impact laterally a subsurface ground in vertical bore-hole was developed and applied at three study areas, which contain four sites composed of two existing port sites and two new LNG storage facility sites. The geotechnical dynamic properties such as $V_s,\;V_p$ and v with depth from the soil surface to the engineering and seismic bedrock were efficiently determined from the laterally impacted cross-hole seismic tests at study sites, and were provided as the fundamental parameters for the seismic performance evaluation of the existing ports and the seismic design of the LNG storage facilities.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.155-175
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• 2005

Soil and rock dynamic properties such as shear wave velocity (VS), compressional wave velocity (VP) and corresponding Poisson's ratio ( v ) are very important geotechnical parameters in predicting deformational behavior of structures as well as practicing seismic design and performance evaluation. In an effort to measure the parameter efficiently and accurately, various bore-hole seismic testing techniques have been, thus, developed and used during past several decades. In this study, cross-hole seismic testing technique which is known as the most reliable seismic method was adopted for obtaining geotechnical dynamic properties. To perform successfully the cross-hole test for rock as well as soil layers regardless of the ground water level, spring-loaded source which impact laterally a subsurface ground in vertical bore-hole was developed and applied at three study areas, which contain four sites composed of two existing port sites and two new LNG storage facility sites. The geotechnical dynamic properties such as VS, VP and v with depth were efficiently determined from the laterally impacted cross-hole seismic tests at study sites, and were provided as the fundamental parameters for the seismic performance evaluation of the existing ports and the seismic design of the LNG storage facilities.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.1037-1047
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• 2013

A systematic laboratory compaction testing was performed with the laboratory seismic measurements of the compacted specimens sampled from various compaction fills and was supplemented with in-situ seismic testing to investigate the effects of compaction energy on the elastic wave velocities of the railway roadbed materials. The both variances of the compressive and shear wave velocities with moisture content curve ($V_p$-w and $V_s$-w curves) are similar to the general trend of the density-moisture content curve(${\gamma}_d$-w curve). At the wet side of optimal moisture content (OMC), either $V_p$ or $V_s$ does not significantly increase, which is well reflecting the no gaining in density with the increasing compaction energy exceeding modified-D compaction effort. $V_p$ increases linearly with ${\gamma}_d$ at the dry side of OMC, while it does exponentially at the wet side. The in-situ wave velocities were found to be influenced by the level of confinement and $V_s$ was more sensitive to compaction energy than $V_p$.