• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.247-258
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• 2024

Tailings are waste materials of mining operations, consisting of a mixture of clay, silt, sand with a high content of unrecoverable metals, process water, and chemical reagents. They are usually discharged as slurry into the storage area retained by dams or earth embankments. Poor knowledge of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of tailings has often resulted in a high rate of failures in which static liquefaction has been widely recognized as one of the major causes of dam collapse. Many studies have dealt with the static liquefaction of coarse soils in saturated conditions. This research provides an extension to the case of silty tailings in unsaturated conditions. The static liquefaction resistance was evaluated in terms of stress-strain behavior by means of monotonic triaxial tests. Its dependency on the preparation method, the volumetric water content, the void ratio, and the degree of saturation was studied and compared with literature data. The static liquefaction response was proved to be dependent mainly on the preparation technique and degree of saturation that, in turn, controls the excess of pore pressure whose leading role is investigated by means of the relationship between the -B Skempton parameter and the degree of saturation. A preliminary interpretation of the static liquefaction response of Stava tailings is also provided within the Critical State framework.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.96-103
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• 1999

Most of saline water inousions have been diagnosed by geophysical or geochemical approach independently. The objective of this study is to provide the effective method to detect the saline water intrusion on the ground water in the vicinity of seashore using these two methods. Schulumberger sounding, frequency domain electromagnetic sounding and geochemical analysis of ground water were carried out to explore saline water intrusion. Schulumberger sounding was implemented in dry surface condition before irrigation water was introduced into the field, while electromagnetic sounding was carried out in wet ground condition after the irrigation. The purpose of duplicated measurements on the equivalent spot at different times was to investigate the variation of anomaly zone depending on the amount of ground water. It was possible to discriminate the anomalous zone due to high water saturation from the low electric resistivity zone by high salt concentrations through this way. For the verification of the geophysical result, the ground water samples in the study area were collected and analysed at the 23 points near the measuring spots. The groundwater at the spot nearest to the sea water intrusion identified by geophysical method indicates higher salinity than the standard limit concentration for agricultural irrigation water (250 mg/1). Isotope analysis of $D({^2}H)$ vs. is ${^18}O$ and PCA analysis were used to discriminate the anthropogenic pollution from those of high salinity from sea water intrusion.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.283-288
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• 2014

The underground water quality of petroleum products storage cavern is influenced by that of dumping and landfill sites adjacent to cavern. From the chemical analysis of underground water sampled from landfill site, insignificant amounts of As, Cu and Pb were detected in a half of test samples while Cd, Hg, $Cr^{6+}$, $CN^-$, TCE, PCE and Phenol were not detected in all samples. All measurements of $COD^{Mn}$ were below $8.0mg/{\ell}$ that can be negligible for the contamination by organic matters. The total bacteria counted from 1st and 2nd microbiological analysis were $94.84{\times}10^4cells/m{\ell}$ and $146.26{\times}10^{-4}cells/m{\ell}$, respectively, and all counts of the sulfate reducing bacteria were less than $2cells/m{\ell}$. It can be suggested that the water quality adjacent to storage cavern can also be studied to improve the reliability of hydrogeologic stability of storage cavern.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.523-539
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• 2017

Clay soils are typical for their swelling properties upon absorption of water during rains and development of cracks during summer time owing to the profile desorption of water through the inter-connected soil pores by water vapour diffusion leading to evaporation. This type of unstable soil phenomenon by and large poses a serious threat to the strength and stability of structures when rest on such type of soils. Even as lime and cement are extensively used for stabilization of clay soils it has become imperative to find relatively cheaper alternative materials to bring out the desired properties within the clay soil domain. In the present era of catastrophic environmental degradation as a side effect to modernized manufacturing processes, industrialization and urbanization the creative idea would be treating the waste products in a beneficial way for reuse and recycling. Bottom ash and ecosand are construed as a waste product from cement industry. An optimal combination of bottom ash-eco sand can be thought of as a viable alternative to stabilize the clay soils by means of an effective dispersion dynamics associated with the inter connected network of pore spaces. A CATIA model was created and imported to ANSYS Fluent to study the dispersion dynamics. Ion migration from the bottom ash-ecosand pile was facilitated through natural formation of cracks in clay soil subjected to atmospheric conditions. Treated samples collected at different curing days from inner and outer zones at different depths were tested for, plasticity index, Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS), free swell index, water content, Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), pH and ion concentration to show the effectiveness of the method in improving the clay soil.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.205-216
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• 2017

Fluctuations in groundwater level are the major cause of ground subsidence in the abandoned limestone mine. In this study, evaluation of groundwater flow under three different cases of natural condition, aggregate-filling, temporary drainage in groundwater-saturated limestone mine cavities was executed by 3-dimensional analysis. In the case of aggregate-filling, although the water level both in the upper ground of mine cavities and an agricultural watershed was elevated, it was lower than the water level fluctuation of an agricultural water use and rainfall and the flow rate was similar to the flow rate of natural condition. In the case of temporary drainage, as the water level in the upper ground of mine cavities and an agricultural watershed decrease rapidly and the flow rate has increased by 25times, so the risk of ground subsidence increased.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.397-401
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• 2005

Acid mine drainage and waste of abandoned mine area have caused serious water pollution and destruction of an ecosystem because of exposing to environment without an appropriate treatment. Gwang-yang mine area also has a serious problem in the nearby residential area and waterway ecosystems. The objectives of this research are to develop the most suitable remediation system for acid mine drainage by using waste materials, and to diagnose stream environments impacted by acid mine drainage through the new ecological health assessment methodology, and thus ultimately providing a restoring methodology to mining regions. In the water system health assessment, the result of ESHI model, RBP and Karr suggested by US EPA is revised by ecological features of our country, come to ESHI score 13; 'Very poor' at some points. Together with pH value and heavy metal concentration, it's the aggravation of ecological health index caused by chemical disturbances. In the acid mine drainage treatment, we apply marine shells and slags to this system. Slags had the best removal ability for heavy metals, but pH value was more than 10 exceeding the standard for drain water. In case of marine shells, pH of treated water maintained 7 to 8, and concentrations of Fe and Zn decreased significantly after treatment.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.599-611
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• 2022

Tendon reinforced cemented soil is applied extensively in foundation stabilisation and improvement, especially in areas with soft clay. To solve the deterioration problem led by steel corrosion, the glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) tendon is introduced to substitute the traditional steel tendon. The interface bond strength between the cemented soil matrix and GFRP tendon demonstrates the outstanding mechanical property of this composite. However, the lack of research between the influence factors and bond strength hinders the application. To evaluate these factors, back propagation neural network (BPNN) is applied to predict the relationship between them and bond strength. Since adjusting BPNN parameters is time-consuming and laborious, the particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm is proposed. This study evaluated the influence of water content, cement content, curing time, and slip distance on the bond performance of GFRP tendon-reinforced cemented soils (GTRCS). The results showed that the ultimate and residual bond strengths were both in positive proportion to cement content and negative to water content. The sample cured for 28 days with 30% water content and 50% cement content had the largest ultimate strength (3879.40 kPa). The PSO-BPNN model was tuned with 3 neurons in the input layer, 10 in the hidden layer, and 1 in the output layer. It showed outstanding performance on a large database comprising 405 testing results. Its higher correlation coefficient (0.908) and lower root-mean-square error (239.11 kPa) were obtained compared to multiple linear regression (MLR) and logistic regression (LR). In addition, a sensitivity analysis was applied to acquire the ranking of the input variables. The results illustrated that the cement content performed the strongest influence on bond strength, followed by the water content and slip displacement.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2015

The development of drought index that provides detailed-spatial-resolution drought information is essential for improving drought planning and preparedness. The objective of this study was to develop the concept of using satellite-based hybrid drought index called the Vegetation Drought Response Index in South Korea (VegDRI-SKorea) that could improve spatial resolution for monitoring local and regional drought. The VegDRI-SKorea was developed using the Classification And Regression Trees (CART) algorithm based on remote sensing data such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from MODIS satellite images, climate drought indices such as Self Calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (SC-PDSI) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), and the biophysical data such as land cover, eco region, and soil available water capacity. A case study has been done for the 2012 drought to evaluate the VegDRI-SKorea model for South Korea. The VegDRI-SKorea represented the drought areas from the end of May and to the severe drought at the end of June. Results show that the integration of satellite imageries and various associated data allows us to get improved both spatially and temporally drought information using a data mining technique and get better understanding of drought condition. In addition, VegDRI-SKorea is expected to contribute to monitor the current drought condition for evaluating local and regional drought risk assessment and assisting drought-related decision making.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.21-33
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to review of environmental assessment of heavy metals derived from various metalliferous mines in Korea. As a results of national wide research for heavy metal contaminations in the vicinity of metalleferous mines, the main contaminants are mine waste materials including tailings. From the materials, toxic elements including As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn can be dispersed into downstream through wind and water. Thus, soils around the mines contain elevated levels of those elements, which are over the guide values for environmental regulation of soils in Korea. Arsenic is one of the most important elements contaminated by mining activities, to a less extent, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn. In spite of remediation works for some metal mines by the government, there are still lots of abandoned mines which are necessary for reclamation of mining sites. This study also includes that metal concentrations in soils and tailings can be varied upon various decomposition methods including 0.1N HC1 and aqua regia and sequential extraction scheme, with differences in each element, too. This may be due to geochemical characteristics of the elements, such as solubility, mobility and chemical forms in the geochemical environment. Finally, it is suggested that a certain organization should be runned by Korean government for management of abandoned mines.

• 한국환경농학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.93-115
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• 2009

There are growing public concerns over crop and food safeties due to the elevated levels of heavy metals grown in contaminated soil. Heavy metals are classified as the chemical harmful risks for crop and food safety. With implementation of GAP, crop safety is controlled by many regulatory options for soil, irrigation water and fertilizers. Any attempt to retard the metal uptake by crops may be the best protocol to secure crop and food safety. This article reviews the management strategies for heavy metals in view of crop safety in Korea and demonstrates results from the field experiments to retard metal translocation from soil to crops by using chemical amendments and soil layer management methods. Major source of soil pollution by heavy metals has been related with mining activities. Risk assessment revealed that rice consumption and groundwater ingestion in the abandoned mining areas were the major exposure pathways for metals to human and the heavy metal showed the toxic effects on human health. Chemical amendments such as lime and slag retarded Cd uptake by rice (Oryza sativa L.) by increasing soil pH, lowering the phytoavailable Cd concentration in soil solution, immobilizing Cd in soil and converting the available Cd fractions into non-available fractions. The soil layer management methods decreased the Cd uptake by 76% and Pb by 60%. Either reversing the surface layer with subsurface layer or immobilization of metals with layer mixing with lime was considered to be the practical option for the in-situ remediation of the contaminated paddy soils. Combination of chemical soil amendments and layer management methods was efficient to retard the metal bioavailability and thus to secure crop safety for heavy metals. This protocol seems to be cheap, relatively easy to practice and practical in the agricultural fields. However, a long term monitoring work should be followed to verify the efficiency of this protocol.