• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.307-314
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• 2018

Strength of loess that experienced cyclic freeze and thaw is of great significance for evaluating stability of slopes and foundations in loess regions. This paper takes the frequently encountered loess in the Northwestern China as the study object and carried out three kinds of laboratory tests including freeze-thaw test, direct shear test and SEM test to investigate the strength behaviors of loess after cyclic freeze and thaw, and the correlation with meso-level changes in soil structure. Results show that for loess specimens at four dry densities, the cohesion decreases with freeze-thaw cycles until a residual value is reached and thus an exponential equation is proposed. Besides, little change in the angle of internal friction was observed as freeze-thaw proceeds. This may depend on the varying of soil structure, based on which a clue can be found from the surface morphology and mesoscopic scanning of loess specimens. Clearly we observed significant changes in surface morphology of loess and it tends to aggravate at higher water contents or more cycles of freeze and thaw. Moreover, freeze-thaw cycling leads to obvious changes in the meso-structure of loess including lowering the particle aggregates and increasing both the proportion of fine particles and porosity area ratio. A damage variable dependent on the ratio of porosity area is introduced based on the continuum damage mechanics and its correlation with cohesion is discussed.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.57-65
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• 2007

Earthquake is one of the factors to affect the stability of geotechnical structures. Numerous past earthquakes have shown that earthquakes have taught that damage of soil structures could occur on fine soils as well as coarse soils. For that reason, earthquake-induced decreasing tendency for strength on both coarse and fine soils has been investigated using direct simple shear (DSS) tests in laboratory. Based on the testing results the decreasing tendency for strength on coarse and fine soils is clearly identified in terms of the concept of volume decrease potential and plasticity index, respectively. Most of the soils except the weathered soil have shown similar reduction tendency of strength with the increasing number of cycles. Liquefaction strength of coarse and fine soils appears to decrease with the increment of volume decrease potential and the decrement of plasticity index, respectively. Reduction of strength on the weathered soil is particularly remarkable rather than others, which might be owing to the collapse phenomenon. From the DSS test results for soils, proposed is a simple method to evaluate strength decrement with the increasing number of cycles, and it can help estimate decrement of strength with the number of cycles easily.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.133-143
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• 2006

A fully coupled effective stress dynamic analysis procedure for modeling seismic liquefaction on slope is presented. An elasto-plastic formulation is used for the constitutive model UBCSAND in which the yield loci are radial lines of constant stress ratio and the flow rule is non-associated. This is incorporated into the 2D version of Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua (FLAC) by modifying the existing Mohr-Coulomb model. This numerical procedure is used to simulate centrifuge test data from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). UBCSAND is first calibrated to cyclic direct simple shear tests performed on Nevada sand. Both pre- and post-liquefaction behaviour is captured. The centrifuge test is then modeled and the predicted accelerations, excess porewater pressures, and displacements are compared with the measurements. The results are shown to be in general agreement. The procedure is currently being used in the design of liquefaction remediation measures for a number of dam, bridge, tunnel, and pipeline projects in Western Canada.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.5-17
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• 2018

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck the city of Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea on November 15, 2017. Many sand volcanoes were observed on paddy fields, parks and roads. This phenomenon was the first to be observed as a sign of soil liquefaction in South Korea. In this study, two different kinds of ejected Pohang sands were collected from a liquefied paddy field. Those sands were reconstituted into loose and dense conditions and then a series of cyclic simple shear tests were conducted under confining stresses of 100 and 200 kPa. A real earthquake motion was also repetitively applied to the specimen. As a result of constant shear stress tests, the cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) of loose sand was 0.12-0.14, while the CRR value of dense sand was 0.17-0.21. It was shown that the relative density was more influencing factor on liquefaction resistance than the sand types and initial confining stress. When a real Pohang earthquake motion was repetitively applied to the specimen, a loose sand was liquefied at the second earthquake motion but the dense sand at the third earthquake motion.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2024

This study investigates the effects of loading frequency (f) and specimen size on the liquefaction resistance of clean sand. A series of cyclic direct simple shear tests were conducted on Jumunjin sand with varying consolidated relative densities (40% and 80%), f values (0.05, 0.10, and 0.20 Hz), and diameter to height (D/H) ratios (3.63, 3.18, 2.82, and 2.54). The results demonstrated the significant influence of f and D/H ratio on the number of cycles to liquefaction (N_cyc-liq) and the cyclic resistance ratio (CRR₁₅). It was observed that increasing f linearly increased N_cyc-liq. Increasing the specimen height also led to higher N_cyc-liq values irrespective of the f or relative density. Moreover, a positive correlation between CRR₁₅ and f indicated that higher f yielded higher CRR₁₅. This relationship was more pronounced in dense sand than in loose sand. Specimen height also significantly affected CRR₁₅, with increasing the specimen height resulting in higher CRR₁₅ values. Furthermore, the effect of f on CRR₁₅ was less significant compared to the influence of specimen height. The effect of f on the normalized cyclic resistance ratio (NCRR) was relatively negligible for loose sand but more substantial for dense sand depending on the D/H ratio. Data analysis revealed that the NCRR generally decreases as the D/H ratio increases. An interpolation formula was provided to calculate the NCRR based on the D/H ratio regardless of the f and relative density.