• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.329-338
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• 2019

Suction of unsaturated bentonite buffers is a very important input parameter for hydro-mechanical performance assessment and design of an engineered barrier system. This study analyzed suction measurement techniques and constitutive models of unsaturated porous media reported in the literature, and suggested suction measurement techniques and constitutive models suitable for bentonite buffer in an HLW repository. The literature review showed the suction of bentonite buffer to be much higher than that of soil, as measured by total suction including matric suction and osmotic suction. The measurement methods (RH-Cell, RH-Cell/Sensor) using a relative humidity sensor were suitable for suction measurement of the bentonite buffer; the RH-Cell /Sensor method was more preferred in consideration of the temperature change due to radioactive decay heat and measurement time. Various water retention models of bentonite buffers have been proposed through experiments, but the van Genuchten model is mainly used as a constitutive model of hydro-mechanical performance assessment of unsaturated buffers. The water characteristic curve of bentonite buffers showed different tendencies according to bentonite type, dry density, temperature, salinity, sample state and hysteresis. Selection of water retention models and determination of model input parameters should consider the effects of these controlling factors so as to improve overall reliability.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.55-64
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• 2006

Shallow failures of slopes in weathered soils are caused by infiltration caused by prolonged rainfall. These failures are mainly triggered by the deepening of the wetting band accompanied by a decrease in suction induced by the water infiltration. In this paper, hysteresis on soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) of granite and gneiss weathered soils is investigated using transient flow analysis respectively. Each case was subjected to artificial rainfall intensities and time duration depending on the laboratory-based drying and wetting processes. The results show that the unsaturated seepage on weathered slopes are very much affected by the initial suction of soils and unsaturated permeability of the soils. In addition, a granite weathered soil has a lower air-entry value, residual matric suction, and wetting front suction and less hysteresis loop than a gneiss weathered soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.69-78
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• 2012

Conventional numerical analysis for rainfall-induced slope stability has been estimated by separating seepage and stress-strain behavior, respectively. Many researchers' models from commercial softwares and literatures define that partially saturated permeability is the only function of degree of saturation (or matrix suction) and then they do not consider hydraulic-mechanical characteristics for the analysis. However, in practice, the water flow processes in a deformable soil are influenced by soil skeleton movement and the pore water pressure changed due to seepage will lead to changes in stress and to deformation of a soil. The relationship between seepage and soil behavior causes a change of partially saturated permeability as well as saturated permeability with the lapse of time. Instability of partially saturated soil slopes due to infiltration would be analyzed from reduction of negative pore water pressure calculating the process of water flow based on predicted partially saturated permeability. Therefore, partially saturated permeability should be defined by the function of degree of saturation (or matric suction) and porosity. The paper presents the comparison between staggered and monolithic coupled analysis regarding seepage and stress deformation problems. As a result, the decrease in matric suction on soil slope from monolithic analysis is slower than that from staggered analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.41-52
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• 2011

The hypothesis on effective stress of unsaturated soil is validated by $K_0$ consolidation results of triaxial tests for the compacted residual soil. The stress characteristic curve (SSCC) can describe unsaturated soil behavior on water contents, which was defined from shear strength or from soil water characteristic curves. In this study, it was found that the stress path of $K_0$ consolidation can also define the SSCC. The effective stress was defined by SSCC. $K_0$ paths for various matric suctions could be described as a unique line by effective stress. The measured values of $K_0$ were interpreted by effective stress as a constant with respect to matric suction. Since the SSCC from $K_0$ consolidation agrees with that from the shear strength, the SSCC from soil water retention curve could describe effective stress behavior consistently on both $K_0$ consolidation path and stress at failure. The effective stress based on SSCC can describe the entire unsaturated behavior from consolidation to failure.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.47-56
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• 2013

There are many technical problems, which can not be resolved by the concept of saturated soil mechanics. Unsaturated soils show an apparent cohesion due to negative pore pressure and relatively lower permeability due to entrapped air compared to saturated soils. The determination of engineering properties of soils with various moisture content is very important to evaluate shear strength and stability of natural and engineered soils. So various researches should be made on unsaturated soils. Especially, sandy soils are widely distributed near Nakdong river, one of the four rivers where Restoration Projects were carried out. Many structures such as dams, flood control facilities, detention facilities and reservoirs have been built in this area. In this study, unsaturated triaxial compressive tests were conducted on sands or silty sands at Nakdong river in order to provide their fundamental characteristics for design and construction of geotechnical structures. As a result of the tests, the maximum deviator stress increased as the confining stress and matric suction increased. The cohesion increased non-linearly as the matric suction increased, but the angle of internal friction was marginally changed.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.101-110
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• 1996

The aim of the work described in this paper is to develope a constitutive model for the prediction of an unsaturated clayey soil and to confirm the application of the model. To this end a series of suction controlled isotropic and triaxial compression tests are conducted on clayey soils. Matric suction is controlled by the axis translation technique using high air entry ceramic disk. Total volume change, air and water volume changes are measured by the device made for the experiment. The specimens are compacted by dynamic compaction using a half of Proctor compaction energy with the water contents of 5% drier than the optimum moisture contents. From test results, volume changes and deviator stresses are analyzed at each state and their relationships are formulated. And the application of the model to clayey soils is confirmed by the comparison between test and predicted results. During drying-wetting and loading-unloading processes for isotropic states, the agreement between predicted and test results are satisfactory. And predicted deviator stresses are well agreed with the test results in shearing process, but volumetric strain is not well agreed with the test results in high suctions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.219-231
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• 2022

Geotechnical materials such as silt, fine sand, or coarse granular soils may be unstable under undrained shearing or during rainfall infiltration starting an unsaturated state. Some researches are available describing the instability of coarse granular soils in drained or undrained conditions. However, there is a need to investigate the instability mechanism of unsaturated silty soil considering the effect of degree of compaction and net confining stress under partially and fully drained conditions. The specimens in the current study are compacted at 65%, 75%, & 85% degree of compaction, confined at pressures of 60, 80 & 120 kPa, and tested in partially and fully drained conditions. The tests have been performed in two steps. In Step-I, the specimens were sheared in constant water content conditions (a type of partially drained test) to the maximum shear stress. In Step-II, shearing was carried in constant suction conditions (a type of fully undrained test) by keeping shear stress constant. At the start of Step-II, PWP was increased in steps to decrease matric suction (which was then kept constant) and start water infiltration. The test results showed that soil instability is affected much by variation in the degree of compaction and confining stresses. It is also observed that loose and medium dense soils are vulnerable to pre-failure instability i.e., instability occurs before reaching the failure state, whereas, instability in dense soils instigates together with the failure i.e., failure line (FL) and instability line (IL) are found to be unique.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.77-85
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• 2013

Unsaturated slopes experience infiltration during rainfall and become unstable when saturated. On the viewpoint of unsaturated effective stress, as matric suction decreases, both effective stress and shear strength decrease, which declines slope stability consequently. This study is focused on describing effective stress based on suction stress. The actual slope failures are simulated to calculate factors of safety in the field of finite element stress. In the residual soils of Hadong and Pohang, unsaturated properties are evaluated by laboratory tests. For unsaturated slopes, analyses of infiltration, stress and stability were performed to simulate actual failures. Based on unsaturated effective stress principle, the stability of actual slopes could be evaluated successfully. It is verified for the effective stress concept to be applicable to the engineering practice on slope design which considers infiltration by rainfall.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.133-142
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• 2000

Series of tests were carried out to study permeability characteristics of unsaturated soils. The weathered soils taken from Inju, Sungwhan, and Kuri, were selected to have different amount of fine grained soils in order to find a possible correlation between the unsaturated permeability behavior and fine grained soils contents. Measurements of permeability for unsaturated soils were performed with a newly developed apparatus, which modeled after Klute's apparatus(1965a). The apparatus was designed to measure volumetric water content and permeability by applying incremental suction pressure. Permeability and volumetric water content of unsaturated soils generally decreased as density of the soil increased. The relationship between volumetric water content and permeability was not related to the fine grained soils contents because the plots scattered widely. By comparing volumetric water content with permeability, empirical parameters A and B could be determined, which made to be possible to predict unsaturated permeability from soil-moisture characteristics.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.247-258
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• 2020

The shear strength of unsaturated soils, a research hotspot in geotechnical engineering, has great guiding significance for geotechnical engineering design. Although kinds of calculation models for the shear strength of unsaturated soil have been put forward by predecessors, there is still need for new models to extensively consider the nonlinear variation of shear strength, particularly for the nonlinear effect of the net normal stress on the shear strength of unsaturated soil. Here, the shear strength of unsaturated soils is explored to study the nonlinear effects of net normal stress with the introduction of a general nonlinear Mohr-Coulomb (M-C) strength criterion, and the relationship between the matric suction (or suction stress) and degree of saturation (DOS) constructed by the soil-water characteristics curve (SWCC) of van Genuchten is also applied for unsaturated soil. Then, two calculation models (i.e., an envelope shell model and an effective stress model) are established for the shear strength of unsaturated soils under the nonlinear strength theory. In these two models, the curve of the shear strength of unsaturated soils versus the net normal stress exhibits a tendency to gently. Moreover, the proposed formulas have flexibility and convenience with five parameters (for the effective stress model) or six parameters (for the envelope shell model), which are from the M-C strength parameters of the saturated soil and fitting parameters of SWCC of van Genuchten. Thereafter, by comparison with the classical theory of the shear strength of unsaturated soils from some actual cases, the rationality and accuracy of the present models were verified.