• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.33-42
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• 2006

Geosynthetics reinforced soil (GRS) walls with a flexible wall face allow deformation. GRS walls constructed on the weak ground change in both horizontal earth pressures on wall faces and the tensile stress of geosynthetics, affecting the backfill in time until the deformation of the backfill and the foundation is completed. However, there are few studies that were done to measure and analyze the horizontal earth pressures and geosynthetics deformation on GRS walls constructed on the soft ground for a long period of time. Two field GRS walls in this study are constructed on a shallow layer of a weak foundation to measure and analyze geostynthetics deformation, horizontal earth pressures, and pore water pressures for the duration of approximately 16 months. Strain gauges are used to measure geosynthetics deformation; this study specifically suggests a new method of measuring nonwoven geotextile using strain gauges. Most geosynthetics deformation occurred within a month after the construction of GRS walls. The maximum deformation measured for approximately 16 months appeared as follows: nowoven geotextile: 6.05%, woven geotextile: 2.92%, and geogrid: 2.33%. Pore water pressures on the GRS wall can be ignored; however, horizontal earth pressures on the bottom and the upper part of the wall face appear larger than earth pressures at rest.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2004

This paper presents the results of stability analyses on soil-reinforced segmental retaining walls in a tiered arrangement. Four different walls were examined to investigate the appropriateness of their designs within the context of the current design guidelines based on limit equilibrium. Slope stability analysis against the compound failure mode, which is frequently ignored during design, was also performed based on the method recommended by FHWA design guidelines. Also presented are the results of instrumentation on a full-scale field trial wall constructed as part of this study. The implications of the findings from this study are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.107-116
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• 2005

Generally, when the stability of the geosynthetic reinforced soil slopes is analyzed, the required tensile forces of each reinforcement layers are calculated from total reinforcement forces which are necessary to retain the equilibrium state of slip mass in which the slip surfaces are assumed to be a linear or bilinear. It is assumed that the reinforcement forces are increased or constant with depth. However, according to the instrumented field data and laboratory model test results, the maximum tensile strain of reinforcement in a reinforced soil slope is developed in a certain elevation, not a bottom of the slope. In the concept of reinforced soil, postulated failure surfaces are the traces of the position in which the reinforcement tensile forces are maximum in the layer, and the reinforcement tensile forces are related to the stress state on the postulated failure surface. Therefore, in this study, based on the distribution of normal stress on the slip surface, a new method for the evaluation of required tensile forces is suggested and a number of the instrumented field data are analyzed by newly suggested method. As a result, it is shown that the newly suggested method produces relatively accurate reinforcement tension forces.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.177-204
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• 1998

In the present study, a method of quasi-three dimensional stability analysis is proposed for a systematic design of the GRS-RW(Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall) system based on the postulated three dimensional failure wedge. The proposed method could be applied to the analysis of the stability of both the straight-line and cove-shaped are. As with skew reinforcements. Maximum earth thrust expected to act on the rigid face wall is assumed to distribute along the depth, and wall displacements are predicted based on both the assumed compaction-induced earth pressures and one dimensional finite element method of analysis. For a verification of the procedure proposed in the present study, the predicted wall displacements are compared with chose obtained from the RMC tests in Canada and the FHWA tests in U.S.A. In these comparisons the wall displacements estimated by the methods of Christopher et at. and Chew & Mitchell are also included for further verification. Also, the predicted wall displacements for the convex-shaped zone reinforced with skew reinforcements are compared with those by $FLAC_{3D}$ program analyses. The assumed compaction-induced earth pressures evaluated on the basic of the proposed method of analysis are further compared with the measurements by the FHWA best wall. A parametric stduy is finally performed to investigate the effects of various design parameters for the stability of the GRS-RW system

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.196-203
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• 2008

Durability of geosynthetics for soil reinforcement is accounted for creep and creep rupture, installation damage and weathering, chemical and biological degradation. Among these, the long-term creep properties have been considered as the most important factors which are directly related to the failure of geosynthetic-reinforced soil(GRS). However, the creep test methods and strain limits are too various to compare the test results with each other. The most widely used test methods are conventional creep test, time-temperature superposition and stepped isothermal method as accelerated creep tests. Recently developed design guidelines recommend that creep-rupture curve be used to determine the creep reduction factor($RF_{CR}$) which is a conservative approach. In this study, the different creep test methods were compared and the creep reduction factors were estimated at different creep strain limits of 10% of total creep strain and creep rupture. In order to minimize the impact of creep strain to the GRS structures, the various creep reduction factors using different creep test methods should be investigated and then the most appropriated one should be selected for incorporating into the design.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.165-173
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• 2019

Plate anchors are generally used for structures like transmission towers, mooring systems etc. where the uplift and lateral forces are expected to be predominant. The capacity of anchor plate can be increased by the use of geosynthetics without altering the size of plates. Numerical simulations have been carried out on three different sizes of square anchor plates. A single layer geosynthetic has been used as reinforcement in the analysis and placed at three different positions from the plate. The effects of various parameters like embedment ratio, position of reinforcement, width of reinforcement, frequency and loading amplitude on the pull out capacity have been presented in this study. The load-displacement behaviour of anchors for various embedment ratios with and without reinforcement has been also observed. The pull out load, corresponding to a displacement equal to each of the considered maximum amplitudes of a given frequency, has been expressed in terms of a dimensionless breakout factor. The pull out load for all anchors has been found to increase by more than 100% with embedment ratio varying from 1 to 6. Finally a semi empirical formulation for breakout factor for square anchors in reinforced soil has also been proposed by carrying out regression analysis on the data obtained from numerical simulations.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.47-56
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• 2005

Recently, geosynthetic reinforced earth walls are gradually replacing conventional concrete retaining walls for reasons of economy, expediency of construction, and aesthetics. A number of reinforced soil walls having more than 10m heights have been constructed to make more effective development in the country. However, mistakes in design and construction of reinforced earth walls have resulted in many troubles such as failure of reinforced earth walls, horizontal deformationor breakdown of facings, and so forth during or after construction. In this paper, a case study on global sliding failure of a geogrid-reinforced tiered wall is carried out to investigate the causes of the failure and suggest the proper countermeasures. From the subsurface investigation and field instrumentation, It is found that the cause of the global sliding failure was occurred by decreasing of bearing capacity of foundation ground induced by infiltration of rainwater.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.27-37
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• 2003

In this research stress-strain behavior of composite geocell-soil systems under triaxial condition and the influence of strength due to the presence of geocell were studied. For the research a series of triaxial tests were carried out on sand specimens confined by flexible-walled single rubber cell. The diameter of all rubber cells placed at the center of the soil sample were 50 mm. Three rubber sizes, i.e. 35, 50 and 70 mm height, were applied to the soil specimen and the size of soil specimen was 50 mm in diameter and 100 mm in height. Three different densities of soil were used for the tests. In general, it was observed that the sand specimen develops an apparent cohesion due to the confinement by the geocell. The magnitude of this cohesion seemed to be dependent to the properties of the geocell material. The test results have shown that the geocell material for this research not only develops the apparent cohesion but also increases the angle of friction whereas geosynthetic material in the references showed only the increase of apparent cohesion. From the application of geocell-soil composites to the hyperbolic model, it was recognized that the determination of the peak strength influences the behavior of the geocell-soil composites.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.25-37
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• 2019

This study confirms reinforcing effect of geosynthetics in the use of soil at higher water contents as a compaction material on compaction tests, field compaction tests, and numerical analysis. To verify a confined effect, a large mold(area ratio of rammer / mold = 0.19) larger than D compaction mold(area ratio of rammer / mold = 0.33) was performed for compaction. It showed that in the D compaction test, dry density were 0.5~0.6% increases and in the compaction test using the large mold, it were 2.4~3.7% increases at high water contents. It shows that when the area of compacted area is large enough, a confined effect could be arising from the reinforcement of geosynthetics even at high water contents. As a result of analyzing of compaction effects according to 'depth(z/B) from compacted surface' in the field, when not reinforced, the compaction state deteriorated due to the over-compaction and the compaction did not work well. However, when reinforcement of geosynthetics, restraint effect by geosynthetics occurs, it is confirmed that the compaction energy is effectively transferred to the compaction layer and the dry density is increased. Also, through the conceptual model of the behavior of geosynthetic and soil layer, the mechanism in the ground due to reinforcement of geosynthetics is presented and it is verified through finite element analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.93-101
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• 2005

The formation of slopes is unavoidable under the special circumstance of Korea where $7%$ of the whole area are composed of mountains and civil engineering projects such as road and site developments are increasing with industrial development and horizontal expansions of urban area. Stability of slopes is one of quite important issues under special meteorological characteristics that over two-thirds of annual average rainfall is concentrated in summer season and the localized torrential downpour is getting more frequent recently. As a result of these circumstances, partial slope failures by debris flow of the high water content soils occur frequently in cut soil slopes. In this case of debris flow slope failure, slope declination method is selected fur the stable recovery because it is impossible to recover entirely by existing recovery methods. Seeding or special grass planting methods are followed separately without exception. The method by which entire recover with bigger stability ratio would be possible and grass planting work would be done simultaneously is developed. For debris flow failure slopes, this study secured the safety of slopes by preventing the inflow of rainwater and scour using geosynthetics-reinforced embankment, and created nature-friendly slopes by planting trees on the slopes.