• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.229-240
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• 2019

The physical models are useful to understand the soil behaviour. Hence, these tools allow validating analytical theories and numerical data. This paper addresses the design, construction and implementation of a physical model able to simulate the soil liquefaction under different cyclic actions. The model was instrumented with a piezoelectric actuator and a set of transducers to measure the porewater pressures, displacements and accelerations of the system. The soil liquefaction was assessed in three different grain size particles of a natural sand by applying a sinusoidal signal, which incorporated three amplitudes and the fundamental frequencies of three different earthquakes occurred in Colombia. In addition, such frequencies were scaled in a micro shaking table device for 1, 50 and 80 g. Tests allowed identifying the liquefaction susceptibility at various frequency and displacement amplitude combinations. Experimental evidence validated that the liquefaction susceptibility is higher in the fine-grained sands than coarse-grained sands, and showed that the acceleration of the actuator controls the phenomena trigging in the model instead of the displacement amplitude.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.637-647
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• 2019

In this study, we analyzed seismic behavior of reinforced earth retaining wall through the model test in order to characterize the behavior of reinforced earth retaining wall during earthquake. A scale model test was performed based on similitude ratio in accordance with law of similitude due to time and financial constraints on real scale modeling experiments. Seismic resistance characteristics of each seismic waves were analyzed by assessing the variations measured through excitation of the excited acceleration of 0.05g, 0.1g, 0.15g, and 0.2g. The results of this study, it would be important to obtain reasonable and abundant data on ground properties and seismic design in preparation for earthquakes when assessing the safety of block type reinforced earth retaining wall confined to model experiment. Acquisition of those data and systematic analytical techniques are considered likely to have a significant effect on the decrease of structure damage caused by earthquakes in Korea which has recently witnessed frequent occurrence of earthquakes.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.291-321
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• 2011

The paper describes a simple numerical FLAC model that was developed to simulate the dynamic response of two instrumented reduced-scale model reinforced soil walls constructed on a 1-g shaking table. The models were 1 m high by 1.4 m wide by 2.4 m long and were constructed with a uniform size sand backfill, a polymeric geogrid reinforcement material with appropriately scaled stiffness, and a structural full-height rigid panel facing. The wall toe was constructed to simulate a perfectly hinged toe (i.e. toe allowed to rotate only) in one model and an idealized sliding toe (i.e. toe allowed to rotate and slide horizontally) in the other. Physical and numerical models were subjected to the same stepped amplitude sinusoidal base acceleration record. The material properties of the component materials (e.g. backfill and reinforcement) were determined from independent laboratory testing (reinforcement) and by back-fitting results of a numerical FLAC model for direct shear box testing to the corresponding physical test results. A simple elastic-plastic model with Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion for the sand was judged to give satisfactory agreement with measured wall results. The numerical results are also compared to closed-form solutions for reinforcement loads. In most cases predicted and closed-form solutions fall within the accuracy of measured loads based on ${\pm}1$ standard deviation applied to physical measurements. The paper summarizes important lessons learned and implications to the seismic design and performance of geosynthetic reinforced soil walls.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.211-217
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• 2020

Earthquake preparedness has become more important with recent increase in the number of earthquakes in Korea, but many existing structures are not prepared for earthquakes. There are various types of liquefaction prevention method that can be applied, such as compaction, replacement, dewatering, and inhibition of shear strain. However, most of the liquefaction prevention methods are applied before construction, and it is important to find optimal methods that can be applied to existing structures and that have few effects on the environment, such as noise, vibration, and changes in underground water level. The purpose of this study is to estimate the correlation between the displacement of a structure and variations of pore water pressure on the ground in accordance with the depth of the sheet file when liquidation occurs. To achieve this, a shaking table test was performed for Joo-Mun-Jin standard sand and an earth pressure, accelerometer, pore water pressure transducer, and LVDT were installed in both the non-liquefiable layer and the liquefiable layer to measure the subsidence and excess pore water pressure in accordance with the time of each embedded depth. Then the results were analyzed. A comparison of the pore water pressure in accordance with Hsp/Hsl was shown to prevent lateral water flow at 1, 0.85 and confirmed that the pore water pressure increased. In addition, the relationship between Hsp/Hsl and subsidence was expressed as a trend line to calculate the expected settlement rate formula for the embedded depth ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2010

It is important to calculate the natural frequency of a piled structure in the design stage in order to prevent resonance-induced damage to the pile foundation and analyze the dynamic behavior of the piled structure during an earthquake. In this paper, a simple but relatively accurate method employing a mass-spring model is presented for the evaluation of the natural frequency of a pile-soil system. Greatly influencing the calculation of the natural frequency of a piled structure, the spring stiffness between a pile and soil was evaluated by using the coefficient of subgrade reaction, the p-y curve, and the subsoil elastic modulus. The resulting natural frequencies were compared with those of 1-g shaking table tests. The comparison showed that the natural frequency of the pile-soil system could be most accurately calculated by constructing a stiffness matrix with the spring stiffness of the Reese (1974) method, which utilizes the coefficient of the subgrade reaction modulus, and Yang's (2009) dynamic p-y backbone curve method. The calculated natural frequencies were within 5% error compared with those of the shaking table tests for the pile system in dry dense sand deposits and 5% to 40% error for the pile system in saturated sand deposits depending on the occurrence of excess pore water pressure in the soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.47-58
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• 2022

Many 1g shaking table tests with an SDOF structure supported by a single pile were performed to evaluate the soil-structure interaction (SSI) effect. Since most structures supported by group piles are MDOF structures with columns, the SSI effect is simulated using a large 1g shaking table test and numerical analysis. According to the results, the movement in the piles tends to increase with input acceleration and when the input frequency is similar to the natural frequency. Furthermore, the slope of the dynamic p-y curve remains constant regardless of the variation of acceleration and input frequency. According to the results of the dynamic p-y backbone curve and the moment of group piles, a center pile with a leading pile has more soil resistance than side piles with a trailing pile, and the effect of group piles is observed above the 7D center to center pile distance.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.5-11
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• 2018

Instead of a single pile, group piles are usually used for the pile foundation. If the earthquake occurs in the ground where group piles are installed, dynamic behavior of group piles are affected not only by interaction of piles and the ground movement but also by the pile cap. However, in Korea, the pile cap influence is not taken account into the design of group piles. Research on dynamic behavior of group piles has been performed only to verify interaction of piles and the ground and has not considered the pile cap as a factor. In this research, 1g shaking table model tests were performed to verify the thickness of the pile cap affects dynamic behavior of group piles that were installed in the ground where the earthquake would occur. The test results show that, as thickness of the pile cap increased, acceleration and horizontal displacement of the pile cap decreasd while vertical displacement of the pile cap increased. The results also showed that, among the group files tested, acceleration, horizontal displacement, and vertical displacement of the bearing pile are smaller than those of the friction pile.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.833-839
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• 2018

Dynamic behaviour of a tunnel is one of the most important issues for the safety and it is generally subjected to the seismic response of the surrounding soil. Relative displacement occurred in tunnel lining during earthquake produces severe damage. Generally, it concentrates at the connecting area when two tunnels are connected in the ground. A flexible segment is a useful device for the mitigation of seismic loads on tunnel lining. In this study, 1-g shaking table tests are performed to investigate the acceleration response for the verification of the effect of flexible segment and to determine the optimum location of the flexible segment for connected tunnels. Four different seismic waves are considered; as a result, peak acceleration is reduced to 49% in case that flexible segment is implemented adjacent to connecting area. It also exhibited that the mitigation of acceleration response is verified in all seismic waves. Additionally, 3-dimensional numerical analysis is performed to compare and verify the results. And the numerical results show good agreement to those of the experimental study.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.123-133
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• 2004

The magnitudes of wall thrust acting on quay walls can easily vary due to the development of excess pore pressure in backfill. In this research, a new displacement model was proposed to predict the displacement of the wall considering such magnitude variations of the wall thrust. This model is based on Newmark sliding block concept. The magnitude variation of the wall thrust is modelled by varying the magnitude of yield acceleration. The parametric study was performed to analyze the effects of input parameters on the seismic displacement of the wall, and the validity of this model was verified by comparing its predicted displacements with those of Is shaking table tests.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.17-28
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• 2022

The effect of the soil-structure interaction (SSI) on has been recently evaluated in shaking table tests. However, most of these tests were conducted on single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) superstructures and a single-pile. This study investigates the inertial interaction effect of a multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) superstructure system with a group piles on a large-scale shaking table test. Whereas the SDOF superstructure system shows a single-frequency amplification tendency, the MDOF superstructure system exhibited amplification tendencies of the acceleration phase and frequency responses for multiple frequencies. In addition, the amplification phenomenon between the footing and the column-type superstructure exceeded that between the footing and the wall-type superstructure, indicating a greater inertial interaction effect of the column-type superstructure. The relationship between shear force and inertial force, the relative vertical and horizontal displacements on the footing was figured out. Also, the ananlysis of dynamic p-y curve at each depth was conducted. In summary, the MDOF and SDOP superstructure systems exhibited different behaviors and the column-type superstructure exerted a higher interaction effect than the wall-type superstructure.