• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.73-84
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• 2013

When a slope failure or a debris flow occurs, a shear strength on failure plane becomes nearly zero and soil begins to flow like a non-cohesive liquid. A consistency of cohesive soils changes as a water content increases. Even a cohesive soil existing at liquid limit state has a small amount of shear strength. In this study, a water content, at which a shear strength of cohesive soils is zero and then cohesive soils will start to flow, was proposed. Three types of clays (kaolinite, bentonite and kaolinite (50%)+bentonite (50%)) were mixed with three different solutions (distilled water, sea water and microbial solution) at liquid limit state and then their water contents were increased step by step. Then, their undrained shear strength was measured using a portable vane shear device called Torvane. The ranges of undrained shear strength at liquid and plastic limits are 3.6-9.2 kPa and 24-45 kPa, respectively. On the other hand, the water content that corresponds to the value of the undrained shear strength changing most rapidly is called flow water content. The flow limit refers to the water content when undrained shear strength of cohesive soils is zero. In order to investigate the relationship between liquid limit and flow limit, the cohesive index was defined as a value of the difference between flow limit and liquid limit. The new plasticity index was defined as the value of difference between flow limit and plastic limit. The new liquidity index was also defined using flow limit. The values of flow limit are 1.5-2 times higher than those of liquid limit. At the same time, the values of new plasticity index are 2-5.5 times higher than those of original plasticity index.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.135-150
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• 2012

This paper presents the study of the effect of microorganism Bacillus pasteurii on the properties such as Atterbergs' limit and unconfined compressive strength of cohesive soils. The results of this study reveal that the liquid limit and plasticity index for all clay soils decreased and the unconfined compressive strength increased. Decrease in plasticity index is very high for Kuttanad clay followed by bentonite and laterite. The unconfined compressive strength increased for all the soils. The increase was high for Kuttanad soil and low for laterite soil. After 24 h of treatment the improvement in the soil properties is comparatively less. Besides the specific bacteria selected Bacillus pasteurii, other microorganisms may also be taking part in calcite precipitation thereby causing soil cementation. But the naturally present microorganisms alone cannot work on the calcite precipitation.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.113-126
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• 1995

Both resonant column (RC) and torsional shear(TS) tests were performed at small to intermediate strain levels to investigate deformational characteristics of cohesive soils. The effects of variables such as strain amplitude, loading frequency, and number of loading cycles were studied. Plasticity index was found to be an important variables in evaluating these effects. Soils tested include undisturbed silts and clays and compacted subgrade soils. At small strains below the elastic threshold, shear modulus is independent of number of loading cycles and strain amplitude. Small strain material damping exists wi th ranges be tween 1.1% and 1.7% for 75 tests. The elastic threshold strain increases as confining pressure and plasticity index increases. Above the cyclic threshold strain, the modulus of cohesive soil decreases with increasing number of cycles while damping ratio is almost independent of number of load cycles. Moduli and damping ratios of cohesive soils obtanined by RC test are higher than those from 75 test because of the frequency effect. Shear modulus of cohesive soil increases linearly as a function of the logarithm of loading frequency.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.173-186
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• 2015

The rapid urbanization in Pakistan is creating a shortage of sustainable construction sites with good soil conditions. Attempts have been made to use rice husk ash (RHA) in concrete industry of Pakistan, however, limited literature is available on its potential to improve local soils. This paper presents an experimental study on engineering properties of low and high plastic cohesive soils blended with 0-20% RHA by dry weight of soil. The decrease in plasticity index and shrinkage ratio indicates a reduction in swell potential of RHA treated cohesive soils which is beneficial for problems related to placing pavements and footings on such soils. It is also observed that the increased formation of pozzolanic products within the pore spaces of soil from physicochemical changes transforms RHA treated soils to a compact mass which decreases both total settlement and rate of settlement. A notable increase in friction angle with increase in RHA up to 16% was also observed in direct shear tests. It is concluded that RHA treatment is a cost-effective and sustainable alternate to deal with problematic local cohesive soils in agro-based developing countries like Pakistan.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.391-398
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• 2000

The index properties of cohesive soils play an important role to examine entire tendency of soil properties. Especially, the Atterberg limits have a good correlation with compression and shear strength of cohesive soils. However, these values strongly depend on their testing methods. In this study, for Pusan clays the Atterberg limits were peformed under different conditions; for example, four kinds of specimen preparation, two kinds of testing equipment, and four kinds of estimating method. And a laboratory vane test was peformed to compare the undrained shear strength with that of the fall cone test. As experimental results, the value of liquid limit performed for oven-dried sample, followed in ASTM D4318, underestimated by about 10% compared to those of another three methods, irrespective to the used equipments. But the value of plastic limit was not influenced by sample preparation methods and equipments. The liquid limits by one-point methods(Leroueil et al., 1996; Nagaraj et al., 1981) were agreed well with those of different methods. Finally, the undrained shear strength by laboratory vane test was relatively larger than that of fall cone test, and the relationship between both showed a bad trend.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.175-182
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• 2023

In general, the design of structures and its construction processes are fundamentally dependent on their foundation and supporting ground. Thus, it is imperative to understand the behavior of the soil under certain stress and drainage conditions. As it is well known that certain characteristics and behaviors of soils with fines are highly dependent on water content, it is critical to accurately measure and identify the status of the soils in terms of water contents. Liquid limit is one of the important soil index properties to define such characteristics. However, liquid limit measurement can be affected by the proficiency of the operator. On the other hand, dynamic properties of soils are also necessary in many different applications and current testing methods often require special equipment in the laboratory, which is often expensive and sensitive to test conditions. In order to address these concerns and advance the state of the art, this study explores a novel method to determine the liquid limit of cohesive soil by employing video-based vibration analysis. In this research, the modal characteristics of cohesive soil columns are extracted from videos by utilizing phase-based motion estimation. By utilizing the proposed method that analyzes the optical flow in every pixel of the series of frames that effectively represents the motion of corresponding points of the soil specimen, the vibration characteristics of the entire soil specimen could be assessed in a non-contact and non-destructive manner. The experimental investigation results compared with the liquid limit determined by the standard method verify that the proposed method reliably and straightforwardly identifies the liquid limit of clay. It is envisioned that the proposed approach could be applied to measuring liquid limit of soil in practical field, entertaining its simple implementation that only requires a digital camera or even a smartphone without the need for special equipment that may be subject to the proficiency of the operator.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.67-74
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to identify the effect of engineering properties on the resilient modulus ($M_r$) of cohesive soils as subgrade. Eight representative cohesive soils representing A-6, and A-7-6 soil types collected from road construction sites, were tested in the laboratory to determine their basic engineering properties. The laboratory tests for the engineering properties were Atterberg limits test, sieve analysis, hydrometer test, Standard Proctor compaction test, and unconfined compressive strength test. Resilient modulus test and unconfined compressive strength test were conducted on unsaturated cohesive soils at three different moisture contents (dry of optimum moisture content, optimum moisture content, and wet of optimum moisture content). The increase in moisture content considerably affected the decrease in the resilient modulus. The resilient modulus increased with an increase in maximum unconfined compressive strength, percent of clay, percent of silt and clay, liquid limit and plasticity index. The resilient modulus decreased with an increase in percent of sand.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.53-60
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• 1982

The mixing of salicylic acid and wheat starch powders was studied using a V-type mixer. After the optimum operating conditions of the mixer were examined, the mixing characteristics relating to dilution ratio, particle size of active ingradient and addition ratio of lubricants were investigated. The coefficient of variation was expressed by a power law relating to the dilution ratio and the particle size of active ingredient. Furthermore, the comparison of results with the theoretically estimated value of mixing index suggested that the mixing of cohesive pharmacceutical powders is a complex stochastic process and cannot be explained fully by a simple theory based on a complete random mixing.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.91-97
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• 2022

The cohesive non-swelling soil (CNS) cushion technology has been widely applied in the subgrade and slope improvement at expansive soil regions. However, the mechanism of the inhibition effect of the CNS layer on expansive soil (ES) has not been fully understood. We performed four outdoor model tests to further understand the inhibition effect, including different kinds of upper layer and thickness, under the unidirectional seepage condition. The swelling deformation, soil pressure, and electrical resistivity were constantly monitored during the saturation process. It is found that when a CNS layer covered the ES layer, the swelling deformation and electrical resistivity of the ES layer decreased significantly, especially the upper part. The inhibition effect of the CNS layer increases with the increase of CNS thickness. The distribution of vertical and lateral soil pressure also changed with the covering of a CNS layer. The electrical resistivity can be an effective index to describe the swelling deformation of ES layer and analyze the inhibition effect of the CNS layer. Overall, the CNS deadweight and the ion migration are the major factors that inhibit the swelling deformation of expansive soil.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.54-63
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• 2023

In this paper, the effect of corrosion level and crack width on the cohesive strength-slip behavior of corroded steel rebar and concrete interface is conducted. The existing studies mainly focus on the decrease in bond strength with respect to the level of corrosion; there are, however, few studies on the decrease in cohesive strength according to the crack width of the concrete surface due to corrosion. Therefore, in this study, a series of tests for the cohesive strength, slip behavior and mass loss of the reinforcing bar is evaluated at the surface of corroded rebar and concrete. It is found that the tendency to decrease the bond strength is closely related to the crack width rather than the corrosion level. Hence, to determine the degradation performance for the bond strength-slip behavior relation, the occurrence of cracks on the concrete surface can be a suitable index.