• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.337-342
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• 2002

A new apparatus called the EFA (Erosion Function Apparatus) has been built and tested to measure the erodibility of fine-grained soils. The EFA is a simple test to predict the erosion rate of fine-grained soils along with the corresponding velocity and shear stress. In addition, it is advantageous in predicting the scour rate for actual soil samples from bridge sites. The plot of erosion rate versus shear stress is the result of an EFA test. It Indicates the critical shear stress at which erosion starts and the rate of erosion beyond that shear stress. In order to measure the erodibilities of various soils, 14 Shelby Tube soil samples are collected from the actual bridge sites and tested using the EFA. The results of the EFA tests which are the relationships between erosion rates and shear stresses are presented in this paper and research continues to develop the correlation between the erosion function and the soil properties.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.133-140
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• 2023

Soil erosion can cause scouring and failures of underwater structures, therefore, various soil improvement techniques are used to increase the soil erosion resistance. The microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) method is proposed to increase the erosion resistance, however, there are only limited experimental and numerical studies on the use of MICP treatment for improvement of surface erosion resistance. Therefore, this study investigates the improvement in surface erosion resistance of sands by MICP through laboratory experiments and numerical modeling. The surface erosion behaviors of coarse sands with various calcium carbonate contents were first investigated via the erosion function apparatus (EFA). The test results showed that MICP treatment increased the overall erosion resistance, and the contribution of the precipitated calcium carbonate to the erosion resistance and critical shear stress was quantified in relation to the calcium carbonate contents. Further, these surface erosion processes occurring in the EFA test were simulated through the coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) with the cohesion bonding model to reflect the mineral precipitation effect. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results, and the developed CFD-DEM model with the cohesion bonding model well predicted the critical shear stress of MICP-treated sand. This work demonstrates that the MICP treatment is effective in improving soil erosion resistance, and the coupled CFD-DEM with a bonding model is a useful and promising tool to analyze the soil erosion behavior for MICP-treated sand at a particle scale.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2004.03b
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• pp.533-537
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• 2004

The erodibility of soil is an important factor to scour, especially in fine-grained soils. In this study, the erosion characteristics of kaolinite are quantified through the scour rate tests using the Erosion Function Apparatus called EFA. The basic soil property tests are also performed. The kaolinite samples are prepared by mixing with distilled water and formed to the designed maximum consolidation pressure of 60, 110, 160, 240, 360kPa, respectively. The results of the scour rate tests are presented in a format of a plot showing the relationship between erosion rates and shear stresses. Erosion properties of kaolinite showed a striking contrast according to the maximum consolidation pressure, and a correlation was established between the erosion properties of kaolinite and the soil properties; water content, undrained shear strength, dry density.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 2021

The resistance of soil to the tractive force of flowing water is one of the essential parameters for the stability of the soil when directly exposed to the movement of water such as in rivers and ocean beds. Biopolymers, which are new to sustainable geotechnical engineering practices, are known to enhance the mechanical properties of soil. This study addresses the surface erosion resistance of river-sand treated with several biopolymers that originated from micro-organisms, plants, and dairy products. We used a state-of-the-art erosion function apparatus with P-wave reflection monitoring. Experimental results have shown that biopolymers significantly improve the erosion resistance of soil surfaces. Specifically, the critical shear stress (i.e., the minimum shear stress needed to detach individual soil grains) of biopolymer-treated soils increased by 2 to 500 times. The erodibility coefficient (i.e., the rate of increase in erodibility as the shear stress increases) decreased following biopolymer treatment from 1 × 10-2 to 1 × 10-6 times compared to that of untreated river-sands. The scour prediction calculated using the SRICOS-EFA program has shown that a height of 14 m of an untreated surface is eroded during the ten years flow of the Nakdong River, while biopolymer treatment reduced this height to less than 2.5 m. The result of this study has demonstrated the possibility of cross-linked biopolymers for river-bed stabilization agents.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1999.03a
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• pp.3-46
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• 1999

A new method called SRICOS is proposed to predict the scour depth z versus time t around a cylindrical bridge pier of diameter D founded in clay. The steps involved are ; 1. taking samples at the bridge pier site, 2. testing them in an Erosion Function Apparatus called the EFA to obtain the scour rate z versus the hydraulic shear stress applied $\tau$, 3. predicting the maximum shear stress r max which will be induced around the pier by the water flowing at ν Ο before the scour hole starts to develop, 4. using the measured z versus r curve to obtain the initial scour rate zi corresponding to r max , 5. predicting the maximum depth of scour zmax for the pier, 6. using zi and zmarx to develop the hyperbolic function describing the scour depth z versus time t curve, and 7. reading the z vs. t curve at a time corresponding to the duration of the flood to find the scour depth which will develop around the pier. A new apparatus is developed to measure the z vs t curve of step 2, a series of advanced numerical simulations are performed to develop an equation for the $\tau$ max value of step 3, and a series of flume tests are performed to develop an equation for the zmax value of step 5. The method is evaluated by comparing predictions and measurements in 42 flume experiments.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.118-125
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• 2011

Conventional erosion function apparatus (EFA) which has been used to measure the hydraulic resistance of soil was improved to consider direction change of the current flow. Using improved apparatus, hydraulic resistance capacities of the artificially composed clayey soil and sandy soil were compared. Test result shows that scour rates which were measured under the bi-directional flow were much higher than those measured under unidirectional flow for both type soils. Scour rate of sandy soil was higher than that of clayey soil. Velocity averaged scour rate of specimen which was consolidated under the relatively large consolidation pressure is higher than that of specimen which is consolidated under small consolidation pressure, which means scour problem under bidirectional flow may be more serious for the deep seabed ground.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.55-66
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• 2015

Big tidal differences, which range from 3.0 m to 8.0 m, exist with regional locations at south and west shores of Korea. Under this ocean circumstance, since a large scour may occur due to multi-directional tidal current and transverse stress of the wind, the scour surrounding the wind turbine structure can make instability of the system due to unexpected system vibration. The hydraulic resistance capacity of soils consolidated under different pressures are evaluated by Erosion Function Apparatus (EFA) under unidirectional and bi-directional flows in this study. It was found that the flow direction change affects significantly on the sour rate and critical shear stress, regardless of soil types while the consolidation pressure affects mainly cohesive soil. Among geotechnical parameters, the undrained shear strength can be well-correlated with the hydraulic resistance capacity, regardless soil type while the shear wave velocity shows the proportional relationships with the hydraulic resistance capacities of fine grained soil and coarse grained soil, respectively.