• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1-13
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• 2009

Liquefaction is a significant threat to structures on loose saturated sandy soil deposits in the event of an earthquake, and can often cause catastrophic damage, economic loss, and loss of life. Nevertheless, the Korean peninsula has for a long time been recognized as a safe region with respect to the hazard of liquefaction, as the peninsula is located in a moderate seismicity region, and there have been no reports of liquefaction, with the exception of references in some historical documents. However, some earthquakes that have recently occurred in different parts of the world have led to liquefaction in non-plastic silty soils, a soil type that can be found in many of the western coastal areas of Korea. In this study, we first present procedures for evaluating the liquefaction potential, and calculate the liquefaction potential index (LPI) distribution at two western coastal sites using both piezocone penetration test (CPTu) data and standard penetration test (SPT) data. The LPI is computed by integrating liquefaction potential over a depth of 20m, and provides an estimate of liquefaction-related surface damage. In addition, we compared the LPI values obtained from CPTu and SPT, respectively. Our research found that the CRR values from CPTu were lower than those from the SPT, particularly in the range between 40 and 120 for the corrected tip resistance, (qc1N)CS, from the CPTu, or in the range of CRR less than 0.23, resulting in relatively high LPI values. Moreover, it was observed that the differences in the CRR between the two methods were relatively higher for soils with high fine contents.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.927-935
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• 2011

In-situ California Bearing Ratio(CBR) test has been widely used for evaluating the subgrade condition in pavements. However, because the in-situ CBR test is expensive and takes time for operation, it is difficult to figure out the in-situ characteristics of subgrade strength in detail. For faster and economical operation, the Dynamic Cone Penetrometer(DCP) has been often utilized for estimating the subgrade strength in the field. The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationship between CBR value and DCP index of the embankment constructed with mixtures of soil and waste lime. Waste lime used in this study is producted as a by-product in the manufacturing process of making $Na_2CO_3$ from local chemical factory in Incheon. In this field measurement, the geotechnical tests such as field water content, field density, field CBR test, and dynamic cone penetration test were conducted.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2016

An active layer distributed on surface of an extreme cold region causes a frost heave by repeating the freezing and thawing according to the seasonal temperature change. Since the height of frost heave is greatly affected by the thickness of active layer, an accurate evaluation of the thickness of active layer is necessary for the safe design and construction of the infrastructure in the extreme cold region. In this study, dynamic cone penetrometer, which is miniaturized in-situ penetration device, is applied for the evaluation of active layer depth distribution. As the application tests, two dynamic cone penetration tests were conducted on the study sites located in Solomon and Alaska. In addition, ground temperature variations were obtained. As the results of the application tests, the depth of interface between the active layer and the permafrost was evaluated from the difference in dynamic cone penetration indexes of the active layer and the permafrost, and a layer was detected around the interface considered as an ice lens layer. Also, the interface depths between the above zero and the below zero temperature determined from the ground temperature variations correspond with the interface depths evaluated from the dynamic cone penetration tests. This study demonstrates that the dynamic cone penetrometer may be a useful tool for the evaluation of the active layer in the extreme cold region.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.3296-3301
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• 2009

The results of PCPT(Pezocone Penetration Test) are widely used for the estimation of the undrained shear strength, for which the empirical cone factors($N_{kt}$, $N_{ke}$, $N_{{\Delta}u}$) need to be obtained at each site. In this study, the cone factors were estimated, for the soils at Bookmyun area in Changwon city, using the undrained shear strengths from the unconfined and UU triaxial compression tests. The parametric studies with plastic index and pore water pressure ratio were performed as well. $N_{kt}$, $N_{ke}$ and $N_{{\Delta}u}$ were estimated in the ranges of 8~40, 7~37, and 1~26 respectively. It was observed that there is a relationship between the cone factors, specially $N_{{\Delta}u}$, and the pore pressure ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.171-183
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• 2004

Electrical resistivity survey is widely used to investigate the stability of center-core type fill dam against the seepage phenomenon. In this study, we analyze the resistivity information obtained on a earth fill dam and compare it with the geotechnical SPT result. The analysis shows that the zones showing low resistivity value generally have low N value. However, some zones with high resistivity pattern do not accompany the increase of N value, and even showing low N value. These results imply that the direct identification of resistivity value to the real status of the core material of fill dam is impossible, and a highly resistive zone may be in serious status due to the effect increasing the resistivity value by the piping condition. Therefore, multiple exploration should be planned to reduce the uncertainty in application of geophysical methods to dam safety evaluation.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.161-170
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• 2002

This paper describes a systematic way of simultaneously identifying the ambient pore pressure and the rigidity index $(=G/s_u)$ of soil by applying an optimization technique to the early part of piezocone dissipation test result. An analytical solution developed by Randolph & Wroth(1979) was implemented in normalized from to express the build-up and dissipation of excess pore pressures around a piezocone as a function of the rigidity index. An ambient pore pressure and optimal rigidity index were determined by minimizing the differences between theoretical and measured excess pore pressure curves using optimization technique. The effectiveness of the proposed back-analysis method was examined against the well-documented performance of piezocone dissipation tests(Tanaka & Sakagami, 1989), from the viewpoints of proper determination of selected target parameters and saving of test duration. It is shown that the proposed back-analysis method can evaluate properly the ambient pore pressure and the rigidity index by using only the early phase of the dissipation test data. Also, it is shown that the proposed back-analysis method permits the horizontal coefficient of consolidation to be identified rationally. Consideration for strain level of back-analyzed rigidity index shows that it corresponds to at least intermediate to large strain level.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.149-155
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• 2008

The road construction, as part of effort to ease the worsening traffic, has been underway throughout the nation, while the existing road has been increasingly losing its load carrying capacity due to such factors as heavy traffic and weathering. In the case of site, the soil type, plasticity index, and specific gravity were SC, 12.2%, and 2.66, respectively. The maximum dry density, optimum moisture content and modified CBR were $1.895g/cm^3$ (Modified Compaction D), 13.6%, and 16.2%, respectively. A correlation of coefficient expressed good interrelationship by 0.90 between the CBR estimated from a dynamic penetration index of dynamic cone penetrometer test and a deformation modulus converted from a dynamic deflection modulus obtained from a portable FWD test.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.125-153
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• 2005

It has been widely known that the seismic piezo-cone penetration test (SCPTU) is one of the most useful techniques for investigating the geotechnical characteristics including dynamic soil properties. As the practical applications in Korea, SCPTU was carried out at two sites in Busan and four sites in Incheon, which are mainly composed of alluvial or marine soil deposits. From the SCPTU waveform data obtained from the testing sites, the first arrival times of shear waves were and the corresponding time differences with depth were determined using the cross-over method, and the shear wave velocity profiles (VS) were derived based on the refracted ray path method based on Snell's law and similar to the trend of cone tip resistance (qt) profiles. In Incheon area, the testing depths of SCPTU were deeper than those of conventional down-hole seismic tests. Moreover, for the application of the conventional CPTU to earthquake engineering practices, the correlations between VS and CPTU data were deduced based on the SCPTU results. For the empirical evaluation of VS for all soils together with clays and sands which are classified unambiguously in this study by the soil behavior type classification Index (IC), the authors suggested the VS-CPTU data correlations expressed as a function of four parameters, qt, fs, $\sigma$, v0 and Bq, determined by multiple statistical regression modeling. Despite the incompatible strain levels of the down-hole seismic test during SCPTU and the conventional CPTU, it is shown that the VS-CPTU data correlations for all soils clays and sands suggested in this study is applicable to the preliminary estimation of VS for the Korean deposits and is more reliable than the previous correlations proposed by other researchers.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.207-224
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• 2006

It has been widely known that the seismic piezo-cone penetration test (SCPTu) is one of the most useful techniques for investigating the geotechnical characteristics such as static and dynamic soil properties. As practical applications in Korea, SCPTu was carried out at two sites in Busan and four sites in Incheon, which are mainly composed of alluvial or marine soil deposits. From the SCPTu waveform data obtained from the testing sites, the first arrival times of shear waves and the corresponding time differences with depth were determined using the cross-over method, and the shear wave velocity $(V_S)$ profiles with depth were derived based on the refracted ray path method based on Snell's law. Comparing the determined $V_S$ profile with the cone tip resistance $(q_t)$ profile, both trends of profiles with depth were similar. For the application of the conventional CPTu to earthquake engineering practices, the correlations between $V_S$ and CPTu data were deduced based on the SCPTu results. For the empirical evaluation of $V_S$ for all soils together with clays and sands which are classified unambiguously in this study by the soil behavior type classification index $(I_C)$, the authors suggested the $V_S-CPTu$ data correlations expressed as a function of four parameters, $q_t,\;f_s,\;\sigma'_{v0}$ and $B_q$, determined by multiple statistical regression modeling. Despite the incompatible strain levels of the downhole seismic test during SCPTu and the conventional CPTu, it is shown that the $V_S-CPTu$ data correlations for all soils, clays and sands suggested in this study is applicable to the preliminary estimation of $V_S$ for the soil deposits at a part in Korea and is more reliable than the previous correlations proposed by other researchers.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.5-13
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• 2015

For the bearing capacity evaluation, dynamic pile tests instead of static pile tests have been commonly used in embedded piles, which are known to have low noise and low vibration construction method. The objective of this study is to analyze the bearing capacity and penetration behaviors of embedded piles, which are constructed in different ground conditions, by using force and velocity signals obtained in the final blows during construction of embedded piles. For the dynamic pile analyses, the CAse Pile Wave Analysis Program (CAPWAP) and Wave Equation Analysis of Piles (WEAP) have been commonly used. In this study, the CAPWAP and WEAP are used for the analyses of the dynamic pile tests, which are conducted on embedded piles. The input values, output values, and force-velocity graphs of CAPWAP determined by analyzing the measured force-velocity signals are investigated. In addition, similar force-velocity singals are obtained from the WEAP by analyzing the input values of the WEAP. Considering the subsurface investigation results around the pile tips, if the N-value increases exponentially along the depth, toe quake value should be small, and therefore large bearing capacity is identified. On the contrary, if the N-value increases linearly, the bearing capacity is small because of large toe quake value. Furthermore, the stiffness of hammer cushion and pile cushion, which is difficult to find correct values, is recommended lower than 500 kN/mm. This study demonstrates that the results of WEAP may be similar to those of CAPWAP and the WEAP can be used to estimate the bearing capacity of embedded piles.