• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.197-208
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• 2022

Micropiles consisting of steel bars and grouts are commonly used in underpinning methods to reinforce supports or to suppress the subsidence of existing structures. Recently, applications in the field of geotechnical engineering have expanded. Despite the increasing use of micropiles are used, the PHC or steel pile formula is still applied for the settlement amount of micropiles. Compared with field test results, the amount of micropile subsidence obtained from the existing method may result in a very large error in the displacement of the micropile. Therefore, it is difficult to utilize micropiles effectively. Hence, to solve this problem, this study evaluated the behaviors and support characteristics of micropiles through field compression and tensile tests, and proposed a method for predicting the amounts of their subsidence. To confirm the appropriateness of the proposed method, field test results and the results obtained using the proposed method were compared. It was found that the settlement amounts of the micropiles as predicted through the existing method were significantly overestimated (error ≈ 50-80%) relative to the field test results, whereas the settlement errors of the piles predicted through the proposed method decreased (error ≈6-32%). Thus, it is possible to reduce the previously overestimated amount of settlement, and the modified method of this study allows more efficient design than the conventional method.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.127-148
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• 1996

Recently, foundations of heavy structures such as bridge abutments have been built on slopes or near the crest of slopes at an increasing rate. Because the bearing capacity of such foundations is considerably lower than the bearing capacity of the same soil on a level ground, deep footings such as piles and caissons are often used. However, the costs of such methods are generally very high. One of the new techniques to overcome the problem is to place reinforcing members such as geosynthetics or metal strips horizontally at some depths beneath the footings. Rational methods of analysis to predict the bearing capacity of footings in reinforced slopes are therefore needed. This paper proposes an analytical method for estimating the increase in bearing capacity gained from the included horizontal strips or ties of tensile reinforcing in the foundation soil below the footing built near the crest of a slope. A failure mechanism, including the concept of'wide slab effect', adopted in the present study for analyzing the bearing capacity of foundations in reinforced slopes, is established through the observed model test behaviors described by Binquet SE Lee and Huang et al, and the Boussinesq solutions. The analytical results are then compared with the experimental data described in the paper by Huang et al. Also in order to properly evaluate the soil reinforcement interaction, typical pullout test values of the apparent friction coefficient, which usually vary with depths owing to both the increase of the shearing volume and the increase in local stress caused by soil dilatancy, are analyzed and related functionally. Furthermore, analytical parametric studies are carried out to investigate the effect and significance of various pertinent parameters associated with design of reinforced slope foundations. Keywords : Bearing capacity, Reinforced slope, Slab effect, Friction coefficient.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.15-23
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• 2012

An internal friction angle, which is one of strength parameters of granular soils, can be obtained from direct shear tests or triaxial tests. The result of traixial tests can be influenced by various experimental conditions such as confining pressure, shearing rate, specimen diameter and height, and end constraint. In this study, undrained and drained shearing behaviors of Nakdong River sand were investigated for loose (Dr = 40%) and dense (Dr = 80%) specimens with 5, 7, and 10 cm in diameter. Friction angles such as undrained total stress friction angle, undrained effective stress friction angle, and drained friction angle obtained from Mohr's stress circle slightly increased and then decreased as a diameter of a specimen increased from 5, 7 to 10 cm, regardless of relative densities. The difference between friction angles caused by different specimen size was at maximum 4.5 degrees for undrained total stress friction angle of dense specimen. In most cases, there was little difference between friction angles of large and small specimens, which was less than 2 degrees. The difference between an effective friction angle from undrained tests and a drained friction angle from drained tests was at maximum 7 degrees for loose samples but negligible for dense samples.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.25-33
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• 2011

Suction buckets have been widely used for offshore structures such as anchors for floating facilities, and the foundations of offshore wind energy turbines. However, the design guidelines for suction buckets have not been clearly suggested. Therefore, this study performed the numerical analysis by using ABAQUS (2010) to evaluate bearing capacities and load-movement behaviors of the suction bucket in NC clay. For the numerical analysis, the depth ratio L/D (L=embedded length of skirt; D=diameter of a bucket) was varied from 0.25 to 1.0. The analysis results showed that the L/D ratio has a significant effect on the bearing capacity, and the vertical and horizontal capacities respectively increased by about 40% and 90%, when L/D ratio increased from 0.25 to 1.0. At the vertical loading, the bucket showed the similar failure mode with a deep foundation, so the shaft and toe resistances can be separately evaluated. At the horizontal loading, the bucket with L/D=O.25 showed the sliding failure mode and the bucket with $L/D{\geq}0.5$ showed the rotational failure mode.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2014

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (HC) is integrated theoretically from soil water retention curves (SWRC) by Mualem capillary model, but the prediction of HC is extremely sensitive to small variation of matric suction near saturation. Near saturation, the Mualem HC based on smooth SWRC decreases abruptly and has problems in the reliability of hydraulic behavior and the stability of numerical solutions. To improve van Genuchten-Mualem (VGM) HC, the van Genuchten SWRC model is modified within range of low matric suction (arbitrary air entry pressure). At an arbitrary air entry pressure, the VG SWRC is linearized in log scale until full saturation. The modified VG SWRC does not affect the fit of actual retention behavior and either the parameters of original VG SWRC fit. Using the modified VG SWRC, the VGM HC is modified to integrate for each interval decomposed by arbitrary air entry pressure. An analytical solution on modified VGM HC is proposed each interval, to protect the rapid change in HC near saturation. For silty soils, VGM models of HC function underestimate the unsaturated permeability characteristics and especially show rapid reduction near saturation. The modified VGM model predicts more accurate HC functions for Korean weathered soils. Furthermore, near saturation, the saturated HC is conserved by the modified VGM model. After 2-D infiltration analysis of an actual slope, the hydraulic behaviors are compared for VGM and the modified models. The prediction by the proposed model conserved the convergence of solutions on various rainfall conditions. However, the solution by VGM model did not converge since the conductivity near saturation reduced abruptly for heavy rainfall condition. Using VGM model, the factor of safety is overestimated in both initial and final stage during heavy rainfall. Stability analysis based on infiltration analysis could simulate the actual slope failure by the proposed model on HC.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.5-13
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• 2015

For the bearing capacity evaluation, dynamic pile tests instead of static pile tests have been commonly used in embedded piles, which are known to have low noise and low vibration construction method. The objective of this study is to analyze the bearing capacity and penetration behaviors of embedded piles, which are constructed in different ground conditions, by using force and velocity signals obtained in the final blows during construction of embedded piles. For the dynamic pile analyses, the CAse Pile Wave Analysis Program (CAPWAP) and Wave Equation Analysis of Piles (WEAP) have been commonly used. In this study, the CAPWAP and WEAP are used for the analyses of the dynamic pile tests, which are conducted on embedded piles. The input values, output values, and force-velocity graphs of CAPWAP determined by analyzing the measured force-velocity signals are investigated. In addition, similar force-velocity singals are obtained from the WEAP by analyzing the input values of the WEAP. Considering the subsurface investigation results around the pile tips, if the N-value increases exponentially along the depth, toe quake value should be small, and therefore large bearing capacity is identified. On the contrary, if the N-value increases linearly, the bearing capacity is small because of large toe quake value. Furthermore, the stiffness of hammer cushion and pile cushion, which is difficult to find correct values, is recommended lower than 500 kN/mm. This study demonstrates that the results of WEAP may be similar to those of CAPWAP and the WEAP can be used to estimate the bearing capacity of embedded piles.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.5-21
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• 2014

It has been pointed out that the collapses of unsaturated road embankments caused by earthquake are attributed to high water content caused by the seepage of the underground water and/or the rainfall infiltration. Hence, it is important to study influences of water content on the dynamic stability and deformation mode of unsaturated road embankments for development of a proper design scheme including an effective reinforcement to prevent severe damage. This study demonstrates dynamic centrifugal model tests with different water contents to investigate the effect of water content on deformation and failure behaviors of unsaturated road embankments. Based on the measurement of displacement, the pore water pressure and the acceleration during dynamic loading, dynamic behavior of the unsaturated road embankments with about optimum water content and the higher water content than the optimum one have been examined. In addition, an image analysis has revealed the displacement field and the distributions of strains in the road embankment, by which deformation mode of the road embankment with higher water content has been clarified. It has been confirmed that in the case of higher water content the settlement of the crown is large mainly owing to the volume compression underneath the crown, while the small confining pressure at the toe and near the slope surface induces large shear deformation with volume expansion.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.5-19
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• 2014

In this study, the structural analysis is performed on the method of shallow block and deep cement mixing pile, and then their characteristics and associated behaviors were analyzed. In the case of continuous beam analysis, the predicted settlement was very small, and shear force and bending stress are somewhat overestimated. The frame method is similar to numerical analysis in the internal force shallow block and long pile, but because the settlement of pile is underestimated, the additional calculation using the reaction of the long pile is necessary. For soil arching method and piled raft foundation method, the excessive axial force of long pile was predicted because the load sharing of pile is very large compared to the other methods. In the behavior of the shallow block and deep pile method, the settlement of shallow block and contact pressure are much in the center than the edge. In the estimating method considering the interaction between improved material and ground, the load sharing of the soil-cement pile ranges from 20% to 45%, and the stress ratio is 2.0~5.0 less than piled DCM. The maximum member forces at the boundary conditions of pile head are similar, but in fixed head the axial force and vertical displacement are different in accordance with pile arrangement.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.29-41
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• 2018

In the case of the enlargement levee on the soft foundation, the existing levee and the enlargement levee connection can be damaged due to heterogeneous subsidence such as differential settlement at the joint of the box culvert passing through the levee. This study selected the downstream region of the Geum River and then confirmed the influence of the piping possibility on the levee by performing a 2D seepage analysis and analyzing the seepage tendency according to the position of the box culvert's gate. As a result, the flow velocity and the hydraulic gradient are larger in the upper breakage than the lower breakage, and the upper leak was more vulnerable to the piping than the lower leak. If leaks occur in the gate located on the riverside land, the risk of piping is increased when the water level rises and is maintained highly. In the case of the gate located on the inland, it could be predicted that the leakage could damage the stability of levee by increasing the water pressure inside the levee. As a result, if leakage occurs at any position in the box culvert, the pore water pressure is increased or decreased compared with the case when no leakage occurs. Therefore, if the pore water pressure is drastically reduced or increased compared with the normal case, leakage may occur. However, the result of this study is based on a 2D seepage analysis, and it is likely to be different from actual cases. Therefore, more detailed analysis by 3D analysis is recommended.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.147-160
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• 2002

According to the Korean Design Code for port and harbor facilities, bearing capacity of rubble mound under eccentric and inclined load is calculated by the simplified Bishop method, and strength parameters are recommended to be c=0.2kg/$cm^2$ and \phi=35^P\circ}$ fur standard rubble if the compressive strength of parent rock is greater than 300kg/$cm^2$, according to research results by Junichi Mizukami(1991). But this facts have never been verified in Korea because there was no large-scale triaxial test apparatus until 2000 in Korea. For the first time in Korea, the large-scale triaxial test(sample diameter 30cm ; height 60cm) on the rubble originated from porous basalt rock in North-Cheju was accomplished. Then strength parameters for basalt rubble produced in North-Cheju are recommended to be c:0.3kg/$cm^2\; and \phi=36^{\circ}$ if the compressive strength of parent rock is greater than 400kg/$cm^2$. And the shear behavior characteristics of rubble, represented as particle breakage and dilatancy, are investigated.