• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.19-28
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• 2014

It is necessary to understand the behavior of the soils for the dredging constructions. The objective of this study is to estimate void ratio and density changes of the dredged soils by using the geophysical testing methods. A series of laboratory tests is performed to obtain geotechnical index properties of the specimen, retrieved from the west coastal of Korea. The sedimentation and self-weight consolidation tests are carried out with observing changes of the interfacial height and the elastic wave velocities. The same amounts of the soils are poured into the testing column at intervals of 12 hours until the interheight reaches to a certain level. After the completion of the sedimentatation and self-weight consolidation tests, downward permeability test is performed to assess a tidal influence in the nearshore. The mini resistance cone is penetrated into the specimen to measure the electrical resistivity with depth. All tests are completely finished, the weight of specimens are measured to calculate the void ratio with the depth. Experimental results show that the aspects of the self-weight consolidation are invisible during dredging process because of rapid sedimentation characteristics of ML. However, the elastic wave velocities increase with increasing in the effective stresses. During permeability test, measured permeability and the elastic wave velocities maintain almost identical values. Void ratio based on the elastic wave velocities changes linearly with time during the step dumpings. Void ratio estimated by the electrical resistivity represents the repeatedly layered depositions according to the step-by-step dumpings. Void ratio determined by soil sampling is similar to those of elastic waves and electrical resistivity profiles. This experimental study demonstrates that the geophysical testing methods may be an effective method for evaluating the behavior of dredged soils.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.110-117
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• 1983

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of load increment ratio on the secondary consolidation for the marine clay at Asan bay by the hyperbola method. The results were summarized as follow: 1. Calculated secondary consolidation by the hyperbola method was slightly less than the value of Casagrande's log t method, but the difference was very little, and the secondary consolidation could be easily calculated by the hyperbola method even if load increment ratio was small. 2. The secondary consolidation ratio was increased with the decrement of load increment ratio, and the creep phenomenon of the settlement curve occurred under the condition of small load increment ratio seemed to be caused by the secondary consolidation. 3. The secondary consolidation ratio occurred during the primary consolidation was irregular in the overconsolidated range, but it was increased with the decrement of load increment ratio in the normally consolidated range. 4. The coefficient of secondary consolidation was increased with the increment of the consolidation load, made a point of the inflection near preconsolidation. And the coefficient of secondary consolidation was decreased from consolidation load $2kg/cm^2$, showed independent of load increment ratio. 5. The coefficient of secondary consolidation was showed in proportion to compression index.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.69-79
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• 2019

The coastal area forms various sedimentary layers according to the environmental conditions such as the topography and geological features of the upper region of the river, ocean currents, and river mouth. Therefore, identifying the characteristics of the marine clay deposited in the coastal area plays a key role in the investigation of the formation of soft ground. In general, alluvial grounds are formed by a variety of factors such as changes in topography and natural environment, they have very diverse qualities depending on the deposited region or sedimentation conditions. The most important thing for the construction of social infrastructures in soft ground areas is economical and efficient treatment of soft ground. In this study, the author collected data from diverse laboratory and field tests on five areas in western and southern offshore with relatively high reliability, and then statistically analyzed them, thereby presenting standard constants for construction design. Correlation between design parameters such as over consolidation ratio, preconsolidation pressure was analyzed using linear and non-linear regression analyses. Also, proposed distribution characteristics of design parameters in consideration of each region's uncertainty through statistical analyses such as normality verification, outlier removal.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.67-76
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• 2009

The problems of bearing capacity, settlement and shear deformation occur when constructing a structure such as harbor, airport and bridge on soft ground of marine clay, silty clay or sandy soil. Various ground improvement methods are applied to obtain preceding settlement of soft ground and strength increase. In this study, to analyze the applicability of PBD method in deep soft ground, the compound drainage capacity test was operated in comparison with SD. As a result of the test, a minimum drainage capacity of drain material was estimated to be more than $10\;cm^3/sec$ at a more than $400\;kN/m^2$ and less than $5\;cm^3/sec$ at a more than $500\;kN/m^2$ confining pressure in case of single core PBD. In case of double core PBD, it was estimated to be more than $10\;cm^3/sec$ at a more than $500\;kN/m^2$ confining pressure.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.355-364
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• 2016

Recently, a 3,250 meter-long tunnel was constructed beneath the sea bed formed of composite sedimentary soils to transport reusable waste heat gas of industrial complex in the west coast of Korea. Some risks such as machine settlement always exist due to the uncertainties of geological and construction factors during the subsea shield TBM tunnelling. In this construction site, the deviation of tunnel alignment caused by shield TBM settlement was occurred during excavation. It was examined that the lack of bearing capacity of soft clay was a main cause. This paper evaluates the risk of shield TBM tunnelling considering the ground conditions. Correlation between machine settlement and its advance rate was evaluated through the analytical equation in which bearing capacity is considered and a 3-D numerical analysis which can simulate the TBM advance condition (in other words, the dynamic condition). It was found out that a shield TBM could settle due to the insufficient bearing capacity of soft clay layers. In order to prevent such the problem, the best advance rate proper to the ground characteristics is needed to be applied. In the ground conditions of the section of interest, it was turned out that if the shield TBM advance rate was maintained between 35 mm/min and 40 mm/min, the machine settlement could be avoided.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.377-383
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• 2000

The composition of primary minerals of sand fractions and secondary minerals of clay fractions were investigated on the polder soils developed from alluvio-marine deposits near to Sapgyo-lake, constructed a sea dike across river estuary located in the west coast. The effects of a topographical sequence on the physico-chemical properties and mineralogical characteristics were evaluated using XRD, DTA, and TG with the chemical composition of $H^+$ saturated clays. Soils located on the seashore side were more silt fraction, higher pH and exchangeable cations than the others. The dominant minerals of soil parent materials are in the order of quartz, feldspars, micas, chlorite and amphibole. According to the greater distance from the lake, the amount of 1:1 minerals increased, but 2:1 minerals decreased. The dominant clay minerals of polder soils are kaolinite, vermiculite and illite. Hydroxy interlayer minerals are abundant in the clay fractions derived from the soil parent materials which have relatively low soil pH.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.41-52
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• 2012

Suction drain method can directly apply vacuum pressure to the soft ground through vertical drains so it can make hardening zones around them. These hardening zones make steeply lower the discharge efficiency of the pore water with decreasing permeability. This paper considered a stepped vacuum pressure to minimize a hardening zone which is one of the important parameters that can decrease discharge efficiency. A series of laboratory tests were conducted in order to examine the effect of the hardening zones and to evaluate their effects to the ground improvements with varying durations which applied stepped vacuum pressures(-20kPa, -40kPa, -60kPa and -80kPa) with Busan marine clay. According to strength(CPT), water content test and theoretical investigation indicate a size of the hardening zone within 7cm and the decreasing ratio of permeability about 2.0~4.0. Also, the total settlements are larger for the stepped vacuum pressure than the instant vacuum loading. The application time with vacuum pressure is determined considering the geotechnical properties of the interested clays. Results of numerical analysis show that consolidation behavior is appropriate to measurement for considering hardening zones.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.67-76
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• 2006

The reasonable assessment of the shear stiffness of a dredged soft ground and soft clay is difficult due to the soil disturbance. This study addresses the development and application of a new in-situ shear wave measuring apparatus (field velocity probe: FVP), which overcomes several of the limitations of conventional methods. Design concerns of this new apparatus include the disturbance of soils, cross-talking between transducers, electromagnetic coupling between cables, self acoustic insulation, the constant travel distance of S-wave, the rotation of the transducer, directly transmitted wave through a frame from transducer to transducer, and protection of the transducer and the cable. These concerns are effectively eliminated by continuous improvements through performing field and laboratory tests. The shear wave velocity of the FVP is simply calculated, without any inversion process, by using the travel distance and the first arrival time. The developed FVP Is tested in soil up to 30m in depth. The experimental results show that the FVP can produce every detailed shear wave velocity profiles in sand and clay layers. In addition, the shear wave velocity at the tested site correlates well with the cone tip resistance. This study suggests that the FVP may be an effective technique for measuring the shear wave velocity in the field to assess dynamic soil properties in soft ground.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.5-17
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• 2005

Spatial uncertainty of Busan marine clay ground, which commonly occurs during site investigation testing, data analysis and transformation modeling, has been described. In this paper geotechnical uncertainty of shear strength indicator $N_k$ has been quantified in both horizontal direction and vertical direction using geostatistical Kriging method. Most of soil data used are from 25 boring tests, 75 laboratory tests, 124 field vane tests and 25 cone penetration tests (CPT). CPT-$N_k$ data for undrained shear strength determination, which are the most important properties in geotechnical design stages, have been analysed. Comparison between cone factor from conventional CPT-based method and that of geostatistical method shows that geostatistical Kriging method is an ideal tool to quantify the spatial variability of uncertainty from self-correlation of soil property of interest, and can be recommended to identify the spatial distribution of consolidation .md shear strength of soils at any sites concerned.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.135-145
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• 2005

Geotechnical design routinely requires that in-situ strength, stiffness of the ground be determined. In the working stress conditions, the strain level in a ground experienced by existing structures and during construction is less than about 0.1%~1%. In order to analyze the deformational behavior accurately, the in-situ testing technique which provides the reliable deformational characteristics at small strains, needs to be developed. Cone pressuremeter tests were performed on the western off-shore region of korea, and analyzed using cavity expansion theory and curve fitting technique to obtain the shear modulus at small strain level of $10^{-1}%$. The value of $E_u/S_u$ ratio for the marine clay shows about 589 at the small strain. However the value of $E_u/S_u$ estimated by lab tests are much smaller values ranged from 81 to 91. It is indicated that the curve fitting technique from CPM tests results can be used to obtain the shear modulus at small strain.