• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.89-99
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• 2012

The expansion of a road on soft ground could induce an additional settlement to the existing road because of the consolidation characteristics of the soft soil layer subjected to additional load by an adjacent banking. In such case, the existing road could be faced with various problems during the stages of the construction and maintenance, such as deterioration of not only the surface smoothness yielding the decrease in automobile performance safety but also the structural stability of the embankment. These kinds of problems are expected to occur more freguently especially for the deep ground level with a fairly thick soft soil layer. Therefore, they should be examined and studied adequately during the design stage. As a reference case study, this paper deals with the project named Namhae Expressway of 2nd Branch with the soft soil layer with the thickness upto about 50m. After a lengthy review of the original design, an improved design is proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2014

Expansion of a roadway on a soft ground can cause settlement of the existing road during embankment construction due to the consolidation characteristics of the soft soil. Many problems related to construction and maintenance, such as deterioration of the surface, decreased safety, and decreased structural stability, could affect the existing road. This scenario is especially true if the roadway foundation is a deep thick soft ground. Therefore, engineers should carefully select a proper design based on the characteristics of the soil layer. In this study, the expansion of the second branch of the Namhae Expressway was selected as the target site because this expressway has been constructing on a soft soil layer approximately 50 m thick. The original design was reviewed, problems were discussed and alternative was proposed through value engineering job plan phases: investigation, speculation, evaluation, development and presentation. In addition, the proposed alternative was evaluated on cost, function and value improvement. Compared to the original design, the proposed alternative saved cost and improved the function and overall value.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.315-324
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• 2018

With rapid economic growth, numerous deep excavation projects for high-rise buildings and subway transportation networks have been constructed in the past two decades. Deep excavations particularly in thick deposits of soft clay may cause excessive ground movements and thus result in potential damage to adjacent buildings and supporting utilities. Extensive plane strain finite element analyses considering small strain effect have been carried out to examine the wall deflections for excavations in soft clay deposits supported by diaphragm walls and bracings. The excavation geometrical parameters, soil strength and stiffness properties, soil unit weight, the strut stiffness and wall stiffness were varied to study the wall deflection behaviour. Based on these results, a multivariate adaptive regression splines model was developed for estimating the maximum wall deflection. Parametric analyses were also performed to investigate the influence of the various design variables on wall deflections.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09b
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• pp.61-67
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• 2010

Thick soft clay deposits which are generally located at the west and south coast of the Korean peninsula have complicated characteristics according to their orientation and formation history. Thus, several geotechnical problems could possibly occur when those soft clay deposits are used as foundations for marine structures. Deep cement mixing (DCM) method is one of the most widely used soft soil improvement method for various marine structures, nowadays. DCM method injects binders such as cement into the soft ground directly and mixes with the in-situ soil to improve the strength and other geotechnical properties sufficiently. However, the natural impacts induced by dynamic motions such as ocean waves, wind, typhoon, and tusnami give significant influences on the stability of marine structures and their underlaying foundations. Thus, the dynamic properties become important design criteria to insure the seismic stability of marine structures. In this study, the dynamic behavior of cemented Busan clay is evaluated. Laboratory unconfined compression test and resonant column test are performed on natural in-situ soil and cement mixed specimens to confirm the strength and strain-dependent dynamic behavior variation induced by cement mixing treatment. Results show that the unconfined compressive strength and shear modulus increase with curing time and cement content increment. Finally, the optimized cement mixing ratio for sufficient dynamic stability is obtained through this study. The results of this study are expected to be widely used to improve the reliability of seismic design for marine structures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.281-292
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• 2008

Prefabricated Board Drains (PBDs) recently become more widely used than conventional sand drains in improving soft ground because the PBD is more time and cost effective. The performance of PBDs is affected by disturbance in the adjacent soil formation during inserting mandrels, the intrusion of fine particles into filter fabric, and necking of the drain by excessive lateral pressure especially occurring in very deep clay formation such as the Busan New Port site. In this study, the PBD with double-core is introduced, which seems to overcome the shortcomings of usual single-core PBDs. An in-situ test program was established in the Busan New Port site, in which a set of the double-core PBDs and the single-core PBDs was installed to compare the efficiency of each of the drains. The discharge capacity of the double-core and the single-core PBDs was compared for various confining pressures in the modified Delft test and the chamber test. A series of CRS consolidation tests was performed in order to obtain profiles of void ratio-effective stress and void ratio-permeability relationships in the Busan New Port site that are used as input date in performing a numerical program ILLICON. The numerically simulated settlements of ground surface in the test site are in good agreement with those of in-situ measurements. In addition, the performance of the double-core and single-core PBDs has been experimentally and numerically compared in this paper.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.5-13
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• 2007

The performance of innovative prestressed support (IPS) earth retention system applied in soft clay was investigated and presented. The IPS wale system provides a high flexural stiffness to resist the bending by lateral earth pressure, and transfers lateral earth pressure to strut supports. The IPS wale system provides a larger spacing of support than conventional braced and anchored systems. The IPS earth retention system was selected for temporary earth support in a building construction in North Busan area. The excavation was made 28.8 m wide, 52.0 m long, and 16.1 m deep through loose fill to soft clay. The IPS system consists of 650 mm thick slurry walls, and five levels of IPS wales and struts. Field monitoring data were collected including wall deflections at six locations, ground water levels at four locations, IPS wale deflections at thirty locations, and axial loads on struts at twenty locations, during construction. The IPS earth retention system applied in soft clay performed successfully within a designed criterion. Field measurements were compared with design assumptions of the IPS earth retention system. The applicability and stability of the IPS earth retention system in soft clay were investigated and evaluated.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 1999

Seismic refracrion and reflection surveys were conducted along an E-W trending track of 482 m long in Ilwall-dong, Pohang. End-on spread was employed as source-receiver configuration with 2 m for both geophone interval and offset. Seismic data were acquired using 24 channels at every shot fired every 2 m along the track. Refraction data were interpreted using equations for multi-horizontal layers. Reflection data were processed in the sequence of trace edit, gain control, CMP sorting, NMO correction, mute, common offset gathering, and filtering to produce a single fold seismic section. There are two layers in shallow subsurface of the study area. Upper layer has the P-wave velocities ranging from 267 to 566 m/s and is interpreted as a layer of unconsolidated sediments. Lower layer has P-wave velocities of 1096-3108 m/s and is interpreted as weathered rock to hard rock. Most of the lower layer classified as soft rock. Upper layer has lateral variations in both P-wave velocity and thickness. The upper layer in the eastern part of the seismic line is 3-5 m thick and has P-wave velocity of 400 m/s in average. The upper layer in the western part is 8-10 m thick and has P-wave velocity of 340 m/s in average. The eastern part is interpreted as unconsolidated beach sand, while the western part is interpreted as infilled soil to develop a construction site. Three fault systems of high angle are imaged in seismic reflection section. It is interpreted that the area between these fault systems are relatively safe. Large buildings should be located in the safe ground condition of no fault and footings should be designed to be in the basement rock of 3-10 m deep below the surface.