• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.57-71
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• 2021

The pile-supported wharf is the port structure in which the upper deck is supported by piles or columns. By installing batter piles in this structure, horizontal load such as earthquake loads can be partially delivered as axial forces. The codes suggests using the response spectrum analysis as a preliminary design method for seismic design of pile-supported wharf, and suggests modeling the piles using virtual fixed points or soil spring methods for this analysis. Recently, several studies have been conducted on pile-supported wharves composed of vertical piles to derive a modeling method that appropriately simulates the dynamic response of structures during response spectrum analysis. However, studies related to the response spectrum analysis of pile-supported wharves with batter piles are insufficient so far. Therefore, this study performed the dynamic centrifuge model test and response spectrum analysis to evaluate the seismic performance according to the modeling method of pile-supported wharves with batter piles. As a result of test and analysis, it is confirmed that modeling using the Terzaghi (1955) constant of horizontal subgrade reaction (n_h) most appropriately simulates the actual response in the case of the pile-supported wharf with batter piles.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.61-70
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• 2011

The impact protection system consists of an arrangement of circular sheet pile cofferdams-denoted dolphin structuredeeply embedded in the seabed, filled with crushed rock and closed at the top with a robust concrete cap. Centrifuge model tests were performed to investigation the behaviors of dolphins in this study. Total 7 quasi-model tests and 11 dynamic model tests were performed. The main experimental results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, The experimental force-displacement results for quasi-static tests show a limited influence on the initial stiffness of the structure from the change in fill density and the related change in the stiffness of the fill. And by comparing the dissipation at the same dolphin displacement it was found that the denser fill increase the dissipation by 16% for the 20m dolphin and by 23% for the 30m dolphin. The larger sensitivity for the large dolphin is explained by a larger contribution to the dissipation from strain in the fill. In low level impacts the dynamic force-response is up to 26~58% larger than the quasi-static and the dissipation response is showed larger in small displacement. Hence, it is concluded conservative to use the quasi-static response characteristics in the approximation of the response, and it is further concluded that the dolphin resistance to low level impacts is demonstrated to be equivalent and even superior to the high level impacts.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.73-84
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• 2020

In the seismic design of bridges, formation of plastic hinges plays an important role in the dissipation of seismic energy. In the case of conventional fixed-base bridges, the plastic hinges are allowed to form in the superstructure alone. During seismic event, such bridges may be safe from collapse but the superstructure undergoes significant plastic deformations. As an alternative design approach, the plastic hinges are guided to form in the soil thereby utilizing the inevitable yielding of the soil. Rocking foundations work on this concept. The formation of plastic hinges in the soil reduces the load and displacement demands on the superstructure. This study aims at evaluating the seismic response of bridge pier supported on rocking shallow foundation. For this purpose, a BNWF model is implemented in OpenSees platform. The capability of the BNWF model to capture the SSI effects, nonlinear behavior and dynamic loading response are validated using the centrifuge and shake table test results. A comparative study is performed between the seismic response of the bridge pier supported on the rocking shallow foundation and conventional fixed-base foundation. Results of the study have established the beneficial effects of using the rocking shallow foundation for the seismic response analysis of the bridge piers.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.2 s.54
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• pp.81-94
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• 2007

In most experimental researches on the liquefaction phenomenon, an earthquake as a random vibration has been regraded as a sinusoidal wave or a triangular wave with an equivalent amplitude. Together with the development in the part of signal control and data acquisition, dynamic experimental equipments in the soil dynamics have also developed rapidly and further more, several real earthquakes have been simulated in the large model test such as shaking table tests and centrifuge tests. In Korea, several elementary laboratory tests to simulate the real earthquake load were performed. From these test results, it was reported that the sinusoidal wave cannot reliably reflect the soil dynamic behavior under the real earthquake motion. In this study, 4 types of dynamic motions such as the sinusoidal wave, the triangular wave, the incremental triangular wave and several real earthquake motions which were classified with shock-type and vibration-type were loaded to find something new to explain the change of the excess pore water pressure under the real earthquake load. Through the detailed investigation and comparison on all test results, it is found that the dynamic flow is generated by the soil plastic deformation and the velocity head of dynamic flow is changed the pressure head in the un-drained condition. It can be concluded that the change of the excess pore water pressure is related to the pressure head of dynamic flow. Lastly, a new hypothesis to explain such a liquefaction initiation phenomenon under the real earthquake load is also proposed and verified.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.103-108
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• 2018

The fragility curves for CFRD dams are derived in this study for probabilistic damage estimation as a function of a ground motion intensity. The dam crest settlement, which is a widely used damage index, is used for minor, moderate, and extensive damage states. The settlement is calculated from nonlinear dynamic numerical simulations. The accuracy of the numerical model is validated through comparison with a centrifuge test. The fragility curve is represented as a log normal distribution function and presented as a function of the peak ground acceleration. The fragility curves developed in this study can be utilized for real time assessment of the damage of dams.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.29-40
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• 2013

Seismic response of single degree of freedom system supported by shallow foundation was analyzed by using nonlinear explicit finite difference element code. Numerical analysis results were verified with dynamic centrifuge test results of the same soil profile and structural dimensions with the numerical analysis model at a centrifugal acceleration of 20 g. Differences between the analysis and the test results induced by the boundary conditions of control points can be reduced by adding additional local damping to the natural born cyclic hysteretic damping of the soil strata. The analysis results show good agreement with the test results in terms of both time histories and response spectra. Thus, it can be concluded that the nonlinear explicit finite difference element code will be a useful technique for estimating seismic residual displacement, earthpressure etc. which are difficult to measure during laboratory tests and real earthquake.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.27-38
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• 2009

In this study, a series of 1 g shaking table model pile tests were carried out in saturated dense and loose sand to evaluate dynamic p-y curves for various conditions of flexural stiffness of a pile shaft, acceleration frequency and acceleration amplitude for input loads. Dynamic p-y backbone curve which can be applied to pseudo static analysis for saturated dense sand was proposed as a hyperbolic function by connecting the peak points of the experimental p-y curves, which corresponded to maximum soil resistances. In order to represent the backbone curve numerically, empirical equations were developed for the initial stiffness ($k_{ini}$) and the ultimate capacity ($p_u$) of soils as a function of a friction angle and a confining stress. The applicability of a p-y backbone curve was evaluated based on the centrifuge test results of other researchers cited in literature, and this suggested backbone curve was also compared with the currently available p-y curves. And also, the scaling factor ($S_F$) to account for the degradation of soil resistance according to the excess pore pressure was developed from the results of saturated loose sand.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.9
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• pp.5-17
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• 2022

Recently, several studies have been conducted on virtual fixed-point and elastic soil spring methods to simulate the soil-pile interaction in response to spectrum analysis of pile-supported structures. However, the soil spring stiffness has not been properly considered due to the seismic load magnitude, and studies on the response spectrum analysis of pile-supported structures considering this circumstance are inadequate. Therefore, in this study, the response spectrum analysis was performed considering the soil spring stiffness according to the seismic load magnitude, and the dynamic behavior of the pile-supported structure was evaluated by comparing it with existing virtual fixed-point and elastic soil spring methods. Comparing the experiment and analysis, the moment differences occurred up to 117% and 21% in the virtual fixed-point and elastic soil spring models, respectively. Moreover, when the analysis was performed using an API p-y curve considering the soil spring stiffness according to the seismic load magnitude, the moment difference between the experiment and analysis was derived at a maximum of < 4%, and it is the most accurate method to simulate the experimental model response.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.13-24
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• 2023

Tunnels may undergo a larger or a smaller response compared with the free-field soil. In the pseudo-static procedure, the response of the tunnel is most often characterized by a curve that relates the racking ratio (R) with the flexibility ratio (F), where R represents the ratio of the tunnel response with respect to the free-field vibration and F is the relative stiffness of the tunnel and the surrounding soil. A set of analytical and empirical curves that do not account for the depth and the aspect ratio of the tunnel are typically used in practice. In this study, a series of dynamic analyses are conducted to develop a set of F-R_m relations for use in a frame analysis method. R_m is defined as an adjusted R where the rocking mode of deformation is removed and only the racking deformation is extracted. The numerical model is validated against centrifuge test recordings. The influence of aspect ratio, buried depth of tunnel on results is investigated. The results show that R_m increases with the increase of the buried depth and the aspect ratio. The widely used F-R relations are highlighted to be different compared with the obtained results in this study. Therefore, the updated F-R_m relations with proposed equations are recommended to be used in practice design. The rocking response decreases with either the decrease of the difference of stiffness between surrounding soil and tunnel or the larger aspect ratio of the tunnel section.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.45-65
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• 2022

In this paper, a diaphragm wall that supports soils and rock was modeled using FLAC, a finite difference analysis program, to evaluate the seismic behavior of temporary retaining structures in a deep excavation. The appropriateness of the numerical model was verified by comparing its results with those of the centrifuge test performed in a similar condition. The bending moment distribution along the diaphragm wall shows a very similar tendency, and the maximum acceleration obtained at the backfill and top of the wall shows a difference within 5%. Based on the developed model, a parametric study was conducted in various input earthquake, ground, and excavation conditions. The maximum structural forces and bending moment under earthquake loading were compared with the maximum values during excavation, from which the critical condition that requires a seismic design was roughly sorted out. The maximum bending moment of a wall that retains soil layers increased 17%. Particularly, the axial force of struts located in loose soils increased 32% under 100 years return period of an earthquake event, which strongly is estimated to require seismic design for structural safety.