• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.75-86
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• 2009

Salt, one of the most common soluble materials in engineering soil, may have an effect on mechanical behaviors of soils under its cementation process. In order to investigate this natural phenomenon, non-soluble material by using glass beads is mixed with salt electrolyte and cemented by using oven to evaporate water. Three different sizes of glass bead particles, 0.26, 0.5, and 1.29 mm, with different salt concentration, 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0M, are explored by using P- and S-waves, excited by bender elements and piezo disk elemets, respectively. The velocities of the P-wave and S-wave of the particulate medium cemented by salt show three stages with the degree of saturation: 1) S-wave velocities increase while P-wave velocities reduce with degree of saturation changing from 100% to 90%; 2) Both velocities are stable with degree of saturation varying from 90% to 10%; 3) The velocities change enormously when the specimens are nearly dry with degree of saturation from 10% to 0%. Besides, the resonance frequencies of S-wave show similar stages to the S-wave velocities. This study demonstrates meaningful trends of elastic wave characteristics of geo-materials according to the cementation of dissolved salt.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.111-122
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• 2009

Dissolution of some of geo-materials may yield the loss of the soil strength and the settlement of earth structures. The goal of this study is to monitor the several physical behaviors of soluble mixtures during dissolution. Sand-salt mixtures are used to monitor the meso to macro response including the settlements and shear waves. The mixtures of photoelastic and ice disks are used to monitor micro to meso behavior of soluble mixture including the void ratio, force chain, coordination number and horizontal force changes. In the sand-salt mixtures, shear waves are measured by using bender elements in conventional oedometer cells. In the photoelastic disk - ice disk mixtures, micro to meso response are measured by digital images and load cells. The shear wave velocity decreases at the initial stage of the dissolution, and then increases and approaches to asymptotic value. The larger dissoluble particle and the more random packing produces the severe horizontal fore change. After dissolution, the void increases and the coordination number decreases. This study demonstrates that the particle level behavior such as the changes of the force chain, void ratio, and coordination number affects the global behavior such as the change of the shear wave velocity and horizontal force of the system.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.103-111
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• 2008

Soils naturally contain grains of different minerals which may be dissolved under chemical or physical processes. The dissolution leads changes in microstructure of particulate media, such as an increase in local void or permeability, which affects the strength and deformation of soils. This study focuses on the small strain stiffness characteristics of vanishing mixtures, which consist of sand and salt particles at different volume fractions. Experiments are carried out in a conventional oedometer cell (Ko-loading) integrated with bender elements for the measurement of shear waves. Dissolutions of particles are implemented by saturating the mixtures at various confining stresses. Axial deformation and shear waves are recorded after each loading stage and during dissolution process. Experimental results show that after dissolution, the vertical strain and the void ratio increase, while the shear wave velocity and small strain shear modulus decrease. The decrease of the velocity results from the void ratio increase and particle contact decrease. The process monitoring during dissolution of the particles shows that the vertical strain dramatically increases at the beginning of the saturation process and converges after vanishing process finishes, and that the shear wave velocity decreases at the beginning and increases due to the particle reorientation. Specimens prepared by sand and salt particles are proved to be able to provide a valuable insight in macro structural behaviors of the vanishings mixtures.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.125-135
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• 2008

Rigid-soft particle mixtures, which consist of sand and rubber, are investigated for the understanding of the stress-deformation and elastic moduli. Specimens are prepared with various size ratio sr between sand and rubber particles, and different volumetric sand fraction sf. Small strain shear waves are measured under $K_o$-loading condition incorporated with the stress-deformation test by using oedometer cell with bender elements. The stress-deformation and small strain shear wave characteristics of rigid-soft particle mixtures show the transition from a rigid particle behavior regime to a soft particle behavior regime under fixed size ratio. A sudden rise of $\Lambda$ factor and the maximum value of the $\zeta$ exponent in $G_{max}=\;{\Lambda}({\sigma}'_{o}/kPa)^{\zeta}$ are observed at $sf\;{\approx}\;0.4{\sim}0.6$ regardless of the size ratio sf. Transition mixture shows high sensitivity to confining stress. The volume fraction for the minimum porosity may depend on the applied stress level in the rigid-soft particle mixtures because the soft rubber particles easily distort under load. In this experimental study, the size ratio and volumetric sand fraction are the important factors which determine the behavior of rigid and soft particle mixtures.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.87-97
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• 2008

Behaviors of cemented engineered soils, composed of rigid sand particle and soft rubber particle, are investigated under $K_o$ condition. The uncemented and cemented specimens are prepared with various sand volume fractions to estimate the effect of the cementation in mixtures. The vertical deformation and elastic wave velocities with vertical stress are measured. The bender elements and PZT sensors are used to measure elastic wave velocities. After cementation, the slope of vertical strain shows bilinear and is similar to that of uncemented specimen after decementation. Normalized vertical strains can be divided into capillary force, cementation, and decementation region. The first deflection of the shear wave in near field matches the first arrival of the primary wave. The elastic wave velocities dramatically increase due to cementation hardening under the fixed vertical stress, and are almost identical with additional stress. After decementation, the elastic wave velocities increase with increase in the vertical stress. The effect of cementation hinders the typical rubber-like, sand-like, and transition behaviors observed in uncemented specimens. Different mechanism can be expected in decementation of the rigid-soft particle mixtures due to the sand fraction. a shape change of individual particles in low sand fraction specimens; a fabric change between particles in high sand fraction specimens. This study suggests that behaviors of cemented engineered soils, composed of rigid-soft particles, are distinguished due to the cementation and decementation from those of uncemented specimens.

• 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.25 no.6
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• pp.5-16
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• 2009

The is study is to evaluate the small strain shear modulus ($G_{max}$) of Busan clay using in-situ penetration tests. A series of dilatometer tests (DMT) and piezocone penetration tests (CPTu) are performed at Busan newport and Noksan sites, and hybrid oedometer tests are also carried out on the specimens obtained from both sites. The $G_{max}$ is evaluated from the shear wave velocity ($V_s$) measured by the bender elements installed at the boundary of oedometer cell. By analyzing these data, the relationship of $G_{max}$ and state variables, such as confined stress and void ratio, is developed. The analysis of lab and in-situ test results reveals that the ratio of $G_{max}$ to $q_t$ is inversely proportional to the plasticity index while the ratio of $G_{max}$ to $E_D$ has a linear relationship with ($I/I_D$)$(p_a/{\sigma}'_v)^{0.5}$. Two correlations suggested in this study, based on CPT and DMT results, appear to provide reasonable predictions of the small strain shear modulus.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.47-56
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• 2014

In winter season, the pore water inside the ground freezes and thaws repetitively due to the cold air temperature. When the freezing-thawing processes are repeated on the ground, the change in soil particle structure occurs and thus the damage of the infrastructure may be following. This study was performed in order to investigate the stiffness change of soils due to the freeze-thaw by using elastic waves. Sand-silt mixtures are prepared with in the silt fraction of 40 %, 60 % and 80 % in weight and in the degree of saturation of 40 %. The specimens are placed into the square freezing-thawing cell by the temping method. For the measurement of the elastic waves, a pair of the bender elements and a pair of piezo disk elements are installed on the cell, and a thermocouple is inserted into soils for the measurement of the temperature. The temperature of the mixtures is decreased from $20^{\circ}C$ to $-10^{\circ}C$ during freezing, is maintained at $-20^{\circ}C$ for 18 hours, is gradually increased up to the room temperature of $20^{\circ}C$ to thaw the specimens. The shear waves, the compressional waves and the temperature are measured during the freeze-thaw process. The experimental result indicates that the shear and the compressional wave velocities after thawing are smaller than those of before freezing. The velocity ratio of after thawing to before freezing of shear wave is smaller than that of the compressional wave. As silt fraction increases from 40 % to 80 %, the shear and compressional wave velocities are gradually increased. This study suggests that the freezing-thawing process in unsaturated soil loosens the soil particle structure, and the shear wave velocity reflects the effect of freezing-thawing more sensitively than the compressional wave velocity.