• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.349-356
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• 2003

Almost every material of PVD (Prefabricated Vertical Drain) has the fatal problem on the condition - the length must shorten with the settlement of the surrounding grounds - which all PVDs must satisfy. Kinking deformation by buckling of PVD due to consolidation settlement Is discussed in this paper. A new testing device to clarify the deformation of PVD under consolidation of surrounding clay was developed and the fiber drain and a PVD made of plastics were compared under the same condition of consolidation using natural clay specimens. The results are also shown in this paper.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.585-599
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• 2015

Laboratory model tests were conducted to investigate the effect of surcharge loading rate on the magnitude of lateral displacement of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) improved deposit. The test results indicate that under the condition that the system had sufficient factor of safety (FS) ($FS{\geq}1.2$), for the similar model ground under the same total applied surcharge load, the lateral displacement increases with the increase of loading rate. The test results have been used to check the validity of a previously proposed method for predicting the maximum lateral displacement, and it shows that the data points are around the middle line of the predicted range, which supports the usefulness of the proposed method. The basic idea of the prediction method is an empirical relationship between the normalized lateral displacement (NLD) and a ration of load to the undrained shear strength of the deposit (RLS). The model test results offer some modifications of the NLD-RLS relationship: (1) instead of a bilinear relationship, NLD-RLS relationship may be entirely nonlinear; (2) the upper bound value of RLS for the proposed method can be used may be limited to 2.1 instead of the originally proposed value of 3.0.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.39-46
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• 2008

Due to the growth in industrialization, potential hazards in subsurface environments are becoming increasingly significant. The extraction of the contaminant from the soil and movement of the water are restricted due to the low permeability and adsorption characteristics of the reclaimed soils. There are a number of approaches to in-situ remediation that are used in contaminated sites for removing contaminants. These include soil flushing, dual phase extraction, and soil vapor extraction. Among these techniques, soil flushing was the focus of the investigation in this paper. Incorporated technique with PVDs has been used for dewatering from fine-grained soils for the purpose of ground improvement by means of prefabricated vertical drain systems. The laboratory model tests were performed by using the flushing tracer solutions for silty soils and recorded the tracer concentration changes with the elapsed time and flow rates. The modeling was intended to predict the effectiveness and time dependence of the remediation process. Modeling has been performed on the extraction, considering tracer concentration and laboratory model test characteristics. The computer model used herein are SEEP/W and CTRAN/W, this 2-D finite element program allows for modeling to determine hydraulic head and pore water pressure distribution, efficiency of remediation for the subsurface environment. It is concluded that the coefficient of permeability of contaminated soil is related with vertical velocity and extracted flow rate. The vertical velocity and extracted flow rate have an effect on dispersivity and finally are played an important role in-situ soil remediation.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.129-141
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• 2021

The vacuum preloading method has been used in many countries for soil improvement and land reclamation. However, the treatment time is long and the improvement effect is poor for the straight-line vacuum preloading method. To alleviate such problems, a novel combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading method for shallow ground treatment is proposed in this study. Two types of traditional vacuum preloading and combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading tests were conducted and monitored in the field. In both tests, the depth of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) is 4.5m, the distance between PVDs is 0.8m, and the vacuum preloading time is 60 days. The prominent difference between the two methods is when the preloading time is 45 days, the injection pressure of 250 kPa is adopted for combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading test to inject air into the ground. Based on the monitoring data, this paper systematically studied the mechanical parameters, hydraulic conductivity, pore water pressure, settlement and subsoil bearing capacity, as determined by the vane shear strength, to demonstrate that the air-pressurizing system can improve the consolidation. The consolidation time decreased by 15 days, the pore water pressure decreased to 60.49%, and the settlement and vane shear strengths increased by 45.31% and 6.29%, respectively, at the surface. These results demonstrate the validity of the combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading method. Compared with the traditional vacuum preloading, the combined air booster and straight-line vacuum preloading method has better reinforcement effect. In addition, an estimation method for evaluating the average degree of consolidation and an empirical formula for evaluating the subsoil bearing capacity are proposed to assist in engineering decision making.