• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.393-405
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• 2019

This paper evaluates the geotechnical and geo-engineering properties of the South Pars Zone (SPZ) marls in Assalouyeh, Iran. These marly beds mostly belong to the Aghajari and Mishan formations which entail the gray, cream, black, green, dark red and pink types. Marls can be observed as rock (soft rock) or soil. Marlstone outcrops show a relatively rapid change to soils in the presence of weathering. To geotechnically characterise the marls, field and laboratory experiments such as particle-size distribution, hydrometer, Atterberg limits, uniaxial compression, laboratory direct-shear, durability and carbonate content tests have been performed on soil and rock samples to investigate the physico-mechanical properties and behaviour of the SPZ marls in order to establish empirical relations between the geo-engineering features of the marls. Based on the experiments conducted on marly soils, the USCS classes of the marls is CL to CH which has a LL ranging from 32 to 57% and PL ranging from 18 to 27%. Mineralogical analyses of the samples revealed that the major clay minerals of the marls belong to the smectite or illite groups with low to moderate swelling activities. The geomechanical investigations revealed that the SPZ marls are classified as argillaceous lime, calcareous marl and marlstone (based on the carbonate content) which show variations in the geomechanical properties (i.e., with a cohesion ranging from 97 to 320 kPa and a friction angle ranging from 16 to 35 degrees). The results of the durability tests revealed that the degradation potential showed a wide variation from none to fully disintegrated. According to the results of the experiments, the studied marls have been classified as calcareous marl, marlstone and argillaceous lime due to the variations in the carbonate and clay contents. The results have shown that an increase in the carbonate content leads to a decrease in the degradation potential and an increase in the density and strength parameters such as durability and compressive strength. A comparison of the empirical relationships obtained from the regression analyses with similar studies revealed that the results obtained herein are reasonably reliable.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.529-543
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• 2003

Deep-sea surface sediments, acquired from 1997 to 2002 in the Clarion-Clipperton fracture zone of the northeast equatorial Pacific, were analyzed for index and geotechnical properties to provide background information for the design of manganese nodule minor. The sediments were classified into 16 types based on the measured properties and evaluated in terms of miner maneuverabillity and potential environmental impacts arising from mining activities. It was found that the middle part of the study area covered with coarse siliceous sediments is more favorable to the commercial production than the northern part of pelagic red clay. In particular, Area B2 in the middle part is considered the best mining site since it shows the highest abundance as well as it consists mostly of normally to over consolidated (types B, C, D) coarse siliceous sediments that are appropriate for effective minor movement and accompany weak environmental impacts. Taking account of all the analyzed core logs, the average shear-strength values are proposed as a practical guideline fur movements of a manganese nodule miner: 6.0 kPa at 10cm and 7.0kPa at 40cm below the seabed.

• 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.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.23-36
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• 1992

The flat dilatometer(DMT) has been practically used as an in-situ test equipment. It is a simple, rapid and cost-effective tool to characterize the in-situ stress-strain-strength properties of various types of ground materials. However, the results of flat DMT should be validated with considerable data with respect to the known reference values for a specific site. In this study, the applicability of existing relationships which were established for other local deposits is verified by performing the tests in several clay deposits. To compare with the DMT results, field vane tests and cone penetration tests were also carried out in the same field as reference tests, and unconsolidated undrained tests, oedometer tests, and other fundamental material properties tests were conducted on the thin-walled tube samples in the laboratory. The results of the flat DMT combined with empirical correlations are used to estimate soil types, unit weights, coefficients of lateral earth pressure at rest, overconsolidation ratios, constrained moduli and undrained shear strengths of three clay local deposits. It was found that various geotechnical properties estimated from the flat DMT generally well agree with those from the reference tests.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.289-297
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• 2019

Indiscriminate disposal of waste and citation of open dumpsites are some of the key factors affecting the various soil geotechnical properties. Atterberg limit and consolidation tests were conducted to determine the effects of two open waste dumpsites (Uselu Market and New Benin) on geotechnical properties of their underlying soils. Soil sample collected from Uselu Market dumpsite in Benin City metropolis showed slightly lower hydraulic conductivity (K) of $1.0{\times}10^{-6}$ with plasticity index of 18.53% compared to sample collected 1.6 m from the same dumpsite which had high K value of $2.42{\times}10^{-3}$ with plasticity index of 6.9%. Soil sample collected from New Benin dumpsite in Benin City metropolis showed slightly lower K of $1.45{\times}10^{-6}$ with plasticity index of 13.8% than sample collected 1.6 m from the same dumpsite which had high K value of $2.14{\times}10^{-2}$ with plasticity index of 6.0%. X-ray florescent analyser (X-MET 7000) and direct soil pH meter were used to determine the composition of the aforementioned soil samples. The result of samples collected from both dumpsites indicated a low hydraulic conductivity compared to samples collected 1.6 m from both dumpsites. Also, the chemical composition and pH of both dumpsite underlying soils indicated high level of soil contaminants with pH of 3.3 and 3.5 which is very acidic unlike pH of other samples which were in the neutral range (6.8-7.1). Hence, a liner is recommended for all dumpsites or engineered landfill systems to mitigate against the challenges associated with open waste dumping system in the environment.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 2024

In the present research the durability and geotechnical properties of an expensive clayey soil stabilized by two different compositions of additives were investigated and compared. The first composition consisted of environmentally and ecofriendly materials: BOF steel slag ranging from 0-20% as well as rice husk ash (RHA) ranged 0-16%wt of dry soil. The other composition consisted of relatively new generation of materials including nanomaterials: nano-CaCO3 as well as nano-SiO2. Atterberg limits test, free swell percent test, swelling pressure test and unconfined compressive test were used to assess the stabilizers influences upon expansive soil geotechnical characteristics. Also, the recurrent wet-dry cycles test was exerted on experimental and non-experimental samples for estimating stabilizers effects on durability. According to the results, each of the BOF slag and RHA enhances the expansive soil properties individually, while combination of slag-RHA led to better improvement of the soil properties. Also, the composition of nano-CaCO3 and SiO2 dramatically improved the clay soil operation. The optimum values of slag+RHA were suggested as 20% slag+12% RHA to enhance percent of swelling, pressure of swelling in addition to UCS as much as 95%, 96%, and 370%, respectively. The optimum value for the second stabilizer in this study was found to be 2%nano-SiO2+2% nano-CaCO3 which led to 318% increase in UCS and 86% decrease in swelling pressure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.57-64
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• 1998

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.127-140
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• 1999

In this study, decomposed granite soil samples were taken from 16 different regions and their weathering properties were investigated by testing their physical and chemical properties. According to the results, the Chemical Weathering Index (CWI) ranges from 15.5 to 30 in general and 12 out of the 16 regions show over 20 in CWI. The 12 regions are categorized into complete granite soil areas by Sueoka's classification. CWI, Li. $SiO_2,\; \DeltaS/S$ and SAR are all correlated significantly and used as indicators by which the degree of weathering can be judged. The degree of weathering can be measured especially through Li or $SiO_2$ which is considered as an easy approach of geotechnical classification. Also, the relationship between the value of N and Li is regarded as a good indicator in estimating the degree of weathering.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.88-94
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• 2003

In recent, as Republic of Korea has been interested in environmental problem increasingly and became a member of many organizations or institutions related to environmental preservation such as a Ramsar convention, fundamental and completed methods to prevent ground water's drying up and leakage in tunnel excavation are requested. In this paper, we have studied the anticipated problems by tunnel excavation under the wetland and described the effective designed method to maintain the wetland's ecosystem environment. To accomplish this purpose, firstly, we investigated the wetland's ecosystem, ground's hydraulic properties and analysed the foreign similar case for tunnel excavation near the wetland. And by numerical analysis, we analyzed the runoff and infiltration quantity of water and hydraulic behaviour properties by saturation and unsaturation concept in rock mass and wetland. Finally, we established the effective countermeasure to minimize the ecosystem's bad influence by tunnel excavation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.977-986
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• 2009

Sampling disturbance can introduce considerable errors in the laboratory estimation of geotechnical properties of soils, and the results obtained from sophisticated sampling and careful laboratory testing are not matching with field behavior. Therefore, it is advantage to adopt in-situ testing techniques for the estimation of geotechnical parameters. Therefore, Screw plate loading test, one of new field test technologies, has been investigated in this study. This test can be utilized to find out important properties of soils such as load-displacement, elastic modulus, and shear strength. The screw plate loading test modified from the plate loading test is an experiment underneath ground by inserting a spiral type of auger screw. The structure and characteristics of the screw plate loading test device was examined in detail. In addition, The new screw plate loading test device was manufactured to refer the previous studies. The reliability of developing screw plate loading test was examined through the analysis of the laboratory test.