• International Journal of Railway
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.50-54
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• 2015

The primary function of the trackbed in a conventional railway track system is to decrease the stresses in the subgrade to be in an acceptable level. A properly designed trackbed layer performs this task adequately. Many design procedures have used assumed and/or are based on critical stiffness values of the layers obtained mostly in the field to calculate an appropriate thickness of the sublayers of the trackbed foundation. However, those stiffness values do not consider strain levels clearly and precisely in the layers. This study proposes a method of computation of stiffness that can handle with strain level in the layers of the trackbed foundation in order to provide properly selected design values of the stiffness of the layers. The shear modulus values are dependent on shear strain level so that the strain levels generated in the subgrade in the trackbed under wheel loading and below plate of Repeated Plate Bearing Test (RPBT) are investigated by finite element analysis program ABAQUS and PLAXIS programs. The strain levels generated in the subgrade from RPBT are compared to those values from RC (Resonant Column) test after some consideration of strain levels and stress consideration. For comparison of shear modulus G obtained from RC test and stiffness moduli $E_{v2}$ obtained from RPBT in the field, many numbers of mid-size RC tests in laboratory and RPBT in field were performed extensively. It was found in this study that there is a big difference in stiffness modulus when the converted $E_{v2}$ values were compared to those values of RC test. It is verified in this study that it is necessary to use precise and increased loading steps to construct nonlinear curves from RPBT in order to get correct $E_{v2}$ values in proper strain levels.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.4 no.2 s.13
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• pp.19-27
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• 2004

The interest in the dynamic properties of soils has increased strongly because of earthquake, heavy traffic, and foundations undergo high amplitude of vibrations. Most of soils in Korean peninsula are composed of granite soils, especially the decomposed mudstone soils are widely spread in Pohang areas, Kyong-buk province. Therefore, it is very important to investigate the dynamic properties of these types of soils. The most important soil parameters under dynamic loadings are shear modulus and material dampings. Furthermore, few definitive data exist that can evaluate the behavior of unsaturated decomposed mudstone soils under dynamic loading conditions. The investigations described in this paper is designed to identify the shear modulus and damping ratio due to a surface tension for the unsaturated decomposed mudstone soils under low and high strain amplitude. For this purpose, the resonant column test and the cyclic triaxial test were performed. Test results and data have shown that the optimum saturated degree of decomposed mudstone soils under low and strain amplitude is $32{\sim}37%$ which is higher than that of decomposed granite due to the amount of fine particles as well as the type and proportion of chief rock-forming minerals.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.127-138
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• 2015

It is important to evaluate the stiffness characteristics of compacted subgrade soil under track that is loaded dynamically. Using a mid-size Resonant Column test apparatus, normalized shear modulus and shear modulus variation with changing of confining pressure were investigated with change of degree of saturation (DOS). From an analysis of the test results, it was verified that the maximum shear modulus decreased with increases of DOS. However, normalized shear modulus increased with increases of DOS. Using the test results, a relation of G~${\gamma}$~DOS can be constructed and characterized. In the future, by performing tests with soils used as trackbed broadly in the field, a prediction model for DOS~G~${\gamma}$ can be proposed.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.147-155
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• 2010

A prediction model of resilient modulus($E_R$) was developed for recycled crushed-rock-soil mixtures. The evaluation of $E_R$, using the "orthodox" repeated loading tri-axial test, is not feasible for such a large-size gravelly material. An alternative method was proposed hereby using the subtle different modulus called nonlinear dynamic modulus. The prediction model was developed by utilizing in-situ measured shear modulus($G_{max}$) and its reduction curves of modeled materials using the large free-free resonant column test. A pilot evaluation of the model parameters was carried out for recycled crushed-rock-soil-mixture at a highway construction site near Gimcheon, Korea. The values of the model parameters($A_E,\;n_E,\;{\varepsilon}_r\;and\;{\alpha}$) were proposed as 9618, 0.47, 0.0135, and 0.8, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.345-352
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• 2000

It is very important to evaluate the reliable nonlinear modulus characteristics of soils not only in the analysis of geotechnical structures under working stress conditions but also for the soil dynamic problems. For the evaluation of modulus characteristics of soils, various tests have been mostly employed in laboratory. However, different testing techniques are likely to have different ranges of reliable strain measurements, different applied stress level, and different loading frequencies, and the modulus of soils can be affected by these variables. For reliable evaluation, therefore, those effects on the modulus need to be considered, and measured values should be effectively adjusted to actual conditions where the soil is working. In this paper, to evaluate the modulus characteristics of soils, laboratory testing such as free-free resonant column (FF-RC), resonant column (RC), torsional shear (TS), static TX, and cyclic M/sub R/ tests were performed. The effects of strain amplitude, loading frequency, loading cycles, confining pressure, density, and water content on modulus were investigated. It is shown that the FF-RC test, which is simple and inexpensive testing technique, can provide a reliable estimation of small strain Young's modulus (E/sub max/), and the modulus evaluated by various laboratory tests are comparable to each other fairly well when the effects of these factors are properly taken into account.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-46
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• 2004

In Korea, around one - third of the country is occupied by granite, and granite weathered soils are widely distributed. Most of the research on this soil has been performed using reconstituted specimens because of the extreme difficulty of undisturbed sampling due to the sensitive particle structures. Therefore, the comparisons of deformational characteristics, which is expressed in terms of shear and Young's moduli and damping ratio, obtained from the undisturbed and reconstituted specimens are important for the reliable understanding of soil behavior. In this study, the resonant column and torsional shear tests were performed on granite weathered soils in Korea, and the deformation characteristics of undisturbed and reconstituted soil on granite weathered soils were evaluated and compared.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.561-577
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• 2021

The compacted bentonite buffer in a geological repository for high-level radioactive waste disposal is saturated due to groundwater inflow. Saturation of the bentonite buffer results in bentonite swelling and bentonite penetration into the rock discontinuities present around the disposal hole. The penetrated bentonite is exposed to groundwater flow and can be eroded out of the repository, resulting in bentonite mass loss which can affect the physical integrity of the engineered barrier system. Hence, the evaluation of buffer-rock interactions and coupled behavior due to groundwater inflow and bentonite penetration is necessary to ensure long-term disposal safety. In this study, the effects of the bentonite penetration and swelling on the physical properties of jointed rock mass were evaluated using the quasi-static resonant column test. Jointed rock specimens with bentonite penetration were manufactured using Gyeongju bentonite and hollow cylindrical granite rock discs obtained from the KAERI underground research tunnel. The effects of vertical stress and saturation were assessed using the P-wave and S-wave velocities for intact rock, jointed rock and jointed rock with bentonite penetration specimens. The joint normal and joint shear stiffnesses of each joint condition were inferred from the wave velocity results assuming an equivalent continuum. The joint normal and joint shear stiffnesses obtained from this study can be used as input factors for future numerical analysis on the performance evaluation of geological waste disposal considering rock discontinuities.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.5-16
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• 2018

The ever-increasing amount of waste vinyl is causing big environmental problems. In particular, those from farming industry are sometimes left on site or even illegally reclaimed due to the lack of environmental concerns and capacity for collection, which worsens the situation. It is, therefore, believed that the recycling of waste vinyl is the most ideal solution in the viewpoint of environmental preservation. In this context, the potential of vinyl strip as a ground reinforcing material is investigated to expand the application of waste vinyl recycling. In this study, a series of uniaxial compression tests and resonant column tests were performed for sand specimens reinforced with vinyl strips and cement to investigate their reinforcing effects on static and dynamic behaviors. The changes in the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), the shear modulus and the damping ratio according to the mixing ratio of vinyl strips and cements were analysed for sand specimens, having 40% and 60% relative densities, under various mixing conditions. As a result, both the static and dynamic reinforcing effects of vinyl strip-cement mixture were confirmed and the optimum mixing ratio was proposed.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.113-126
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• 1995

Both resonant column (RC) and torsional shear(TS) tests were performed at small to intermediate strain levels to investigate deformational characteristics of cohesive soils. The effects of variables such as strain amplitude, loading frequency, and number of loading cycles were studied. Plasticity index was found to be an important variables in evaluating these effects. Soils tested include undisturbed silts and clays and compacted subgrade soils. At small strains below the elastic threshold, shear modulus is independent of number of loading cycles and strain amplitude. Small strain material damping exists wi th ranges be tween 1.1% and 1.7% for 75 tests. The elastic threshold strain increases as confining pressure and plasticity index increases. Above the cyclic threshold strain, the modulus of cohesive soil decreases with increasing number of cycles while damping ratio is almost independent of number of load cycles. Moduli and damping ratios of cohesive soils obtanined by RC test are higher than those from 75 test because of the frequency effect. Shear modulus of cohesive soil increases linearly as a function of the logarithm of loading frequency.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.1214-1221
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• 2011

It is an well-known fact that dynamic properties should be considered in design and maintenance of civil structures undergoing dynamic force such as rail track. For designing of the rail tack structures, dynamic properties of track bed soil such as shear modulus (G) and damping coefficients(D) obtained in small to medium range of shear strain must be known. In general, small size sample of D=5 cm and H=10cm has been used mostly for test convenience. However, ratio of largest particle diameter of the soil to sample diameter is very important and affects to the values of dynamic soil properties in track bed. In this study, an RC/TS test apparatus was built and was run for testing a medium size soil sample that can handle with compacted soil sample up to 10 cm diameter and 20 cm height.