• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.525-537
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• 2014

The typical design of ground improvement with prefabricated vertical drains (PVD) and surcharge preloading involves a series of deterministic analyses using averaged or mean soil properties for the various combination of the PVD spacing and surcharge preloading height that would meet the criteria for minimum consolidation time and required degree of consolidation. The optimum design combination is then selected in which the total cost of ground improvement is a minimum. Considering the variability and uncertainties of the soil consolidation parameters, as well as considering the effects of soil disturbance (smear zone) and drain resistance in the analysis, this study presents a stochastic cost optimization of ground improvement with PVD and surcharge preloading. Direct Monte Carlo (MC) simulation and importance sampling (IS) technique is used in the stochastic analysis by limiting the sampled random soil parameters within the range from a minimum to maximum value while considering their statistical distribution. The method has been verified in a case study of PVD improved ground with preloading, in which average results of the stochastic analysis showed a good agreement with field monitoring data.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.319-331
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• 2017

This vacuum preloading combined with polyacrylamide (PAM) flocculation was proposed to separating solid-liquid in waste slurry and to improving bearing capacity of soft soil ground. By using waste slurry taken from drilled shaft construction site in Shanghai, China, a series of settling column tests with four typical flocculants and one normal for waste slurry were carried out for comparative analysis. The optimal amounts for each flocculant were obtained from the column tests. Then, model tests on vacuum preloading with anionic polyacrylamide (APAM) flocculation and without flocculants were carried out. The out of water and the settlement of slurry surface ground were monitored during the model tests, and the changes in water content, particle-size and pore-size distributions in different positions after the model tests were measured and discussed. It is found that water content of the waste slurry without APAM flocculation changed from 204 to 195% by 24 hours standing and 15 hours vacuum preloading, while the water content of the waste slurry with APAM flocculation was declined from 163 to 96% by 24 hours standing, and was further reduced into 37% by 136 hours vacuum preloading, which shows that the combined method is feasible and effective.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.543-551
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• 2019

In China, serious environmental problems are induced by the extremely soft construction waste slurries in many urban areas, and there is no appropriate method to treat it presently. In this paper, four model tests were conducted to investigate the efficiency of waste slurry treatment by combining three conditioning agents which can change characteristics of the slurries with a traditional vacuum preloading method. The tests of size analysis of particle aggregate were conducted to investigate the influence of different conditioning agents on the size distributions of particle aggregate. During the model test, the discharged water volumes were monitored. The pore-size distribution and void ratio of the waste slurries after the vacuum preloading were measured by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). It is found that 1) During the natural precipitation, volume of water out of the organic agent is higher than that of the mixed agent, but it is smaller than that of the mixed agent in the vacuum preloading stage; 2) the mixed agent has a higher total volume of water out than the organic agent and the inorganic agent after test, while the organic agent and the inorganic agent have little difference with respect to the drainage effect. The results demonstrate that the combination of mixed conditioning agent and vacuum preloading for the solid-liquid separation in waste slurry has a satisfactory effect and can be applied in engineering practice.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.47-57
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• 2018

In recent years, vertical extension remodeling of apartment building is considered as one of the efficient ways to broaden and enhance the utilization of existing buildings due to the rapid development of population and decrement of land resources. The reinforcement of foundation is of great importance to bearing the additional load caused by the added floors. However, because of the additional load, the carried load by the existing piles would be in excess of its allowable bearing capacity. In this study, a conceptual construction method called preloading method was presented. The preloading method applies force onto the reinforcing pile before vertical extension construction. The purpose of preloading is to transfer partial load applied on the existing piles to reinforcing piles in order to keep each pile not exceeding the allowable capacity and to mobilize resistance of reinforcing pile by developing relative settlement. The feasibility and effect of preloading method was investigated by using finite numerical method. Two simulation models, foundation reinforcement with preloading and without preloading, were developed through PLAXIS 3D program. Numerical results showed that the presented preloading method is capable of sharing partial carried load of existing pile and develops the mobilization of reinforcing pile's frictional resistance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.547-564
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• 2023

This study investigates the effect of bolt preloading on the rotational stiffness of stainless steel end-plate connections. An experimental programme incorporating 11 full-scale joint specimens are carried out comparing the behaviours of fully pre-tensioned (PT) and snug-tightened (ST) flush/extended end-plate connections, made of austenitic or lean duplex stainless steels. It is observed from the tests that the presence of bolt preloading leads to a significant increase in the rotational stiffness. A parallel finite element analysis (FEA) validated against the test results demonstrates that the geometric imperfection of end-plate has a strong influence on the moment-rotation response of preloaded end-plate connections, which is crucial to explain the observed "two-stage" behaviour of these connections. Based on the data obtained from the tests and FE parametric study, the performance of the Eurocode 3 predictive model is evaluated, which exhibits a significant deviation in predicting the rotational stiffness of stainless steel end-plate connections. A modified bi-linear model, which incorporates three key properties, is therefore proposed to enable a better prediction. Finally, the effect of bolt preloading is demonstrated at the system (structure) level considering the serviceability of semi-continuous stainless steel beams with end-plate connections.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.436-452
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• 2008

In this study, the settlement prediction method based on field monitoring data under preloading improvement with ramp loading is developed. Settlement behavior can be predicted with field monitored settlement throughout the entire preloading process including ramp loading followed by constant loading. The developed method is verified by comparing its predicted results with results from physical model tests and field monitoring data.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.73-78
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• 2000

The reinforced soil has been widely used for constructing retaining walls and embankment with steep slope. However, the benefits of soil reinforcing are often-restricted by a lack of good quality backfill material. In this study, plane strain compression tests were carried out to study the effects of preloading on the behavior of geosynthetic-reinforced saturated clay. For the unreinforced and reinforced soil, drained and undrained shearing tests were peformed after anisotropic consolidation in a constant strain rate. A preoading test was carried out by preloading, creep, unloading, aging and undrained shearing after anisotropic consolidation(K=0.3, σ'₃=50 kPa). It was observed that a reinforced clay, Kanto loam, can have a great initial secant modulus in undraind condition by well compaction and over consolidation. The results shown that the increasing of drained strength should be used to apply a large preloading in the case of reinforced clay.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.251-258
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• 2008

The use of reinforced earth walls in permanent structures is getting it's popularity. Despite a number of advantages of reinforced earth walls over conventional concrete retaining walls, there exit concerns over long-term residual deformation when subjected to repeated and/or cyclic loads, during their service period. In this investigation, the effect of preloading in reducing long term residiual deformation of back-to-back reinforced soil wall under sustained and/or repeated loading enviormentment using a series of reduced-scale model tests. It is found that the preloading technique can be an effective means of controlling residual deformations of reinforced soils under varisous loading conditions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.377-389
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• 2014

The vacuum consolidation method which was proposed by Kjellman in 1952 has been studied extensively and used successfully since early 1980 throughout the world, especially in East and Southeast Asia. Despite the increased successful use, different opinions still exist, especially in connection to distribution of vacuum with depth and time in vertical drains and in soil during preloading of soft ground. Porewater pressure measurements from actual cases of field vacuum and vacuum-fill preloading as well as laboratory studies have been examined. It is concluded that (a) a vacuum magnitude equal to that in the drainage blanket remains constant with depth and time within the vertical drains, (b) as expected, vacuum does not develop at the same rate within the soil at different depths; however, under ideal conditions vacuum is expected to become constant with depth in soil after the end of primary consolidation, and (c) there exists a possibility of internal leakage in vacuum intensity at some sublayers of a soft clay and silt deposit. A case history of vacuum loading with sufficient subsurface information is analyzed using the ILLICON procedure.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.84-91
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• 1982

This study was conducted to investigate the consolidation characteristics of repeated increasing and decreasing load m marine clay. Consolidation test was performed by the whole repetition of increasing and decreasing load and the partial repetition of increasing and decreasing load. The results obtained were as follows: 1. The void ratio e was decreased according to the increase of preloading and the repe- tition of increasing and decreasing load. 2. In case of the partial repetition of increasing and decreasing load the compression index Cc was decreased with the increase of preloading and the repetition of increa- sing and decreasing load 3. The expansion rate was greatly increased with the whole repetition of increasing and decreasing load and it was inclined to be increased with the increase of preloading in case of the partial repetition. 4. The coefficient of volume compressibility were decreased according to the repetition of increasing and decreasing load 5. The secondary consolidation coefficient was decreased with the repetition of increasing and decreasing load. Especially in case of the partial repetition, the peaks of secon- dary consolidation curves could be found to move toward the vicinity of preloading.