• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.637-644
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• 2022

Loess soils are unsaturated and widely distributed in the northwest zone in China. Many steep slope of unsaturated are observed are observed to be naturally stable. However, a low factor of safety (FoS) for these slopes would be computed from the slope stability analysis following local code practices. It seems that the analyzed results following the local code practices do not agree with the real condition as observed in the field. It is commonly known that soil suction plays an important role in slope stability due to a higher shear strength of the unsaturated soil as compared with that of the saturated soil. In this paper, it is observed that the computed FoS can also be affected by unsaturated unit weight of the soil. However, the effect of unsaturated unit weight of the soil on the slope stability is commonly ignored in engineering practice. Therefore, both the effects of shear strength and unit weight of the unsaturated soil on the computed FoS of unsaturated soil slope are investigated in this study. It is observed that the unsaturated unit weight of soil on the computed FoS increases with increase in slope angle. It is also observed that the effects of the unsaturated shear strength and unsaturated unit weight on the computed FoS are more significant than the effect of 3D analyses compared to the 2D analyses on the FoS.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.133-141
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• 2008

In this study, a new method for estimating the undrained shear strength $s_u$ of saturated clays using piezocone penetration test (CPTu) result is proposed. This is to develop more effective CPTu-based $s_u$ estimation method at lower cost with less uncertainty. For this purpose, a marine clay deposit is selected and tested through extensive experimental testing program including both in-situ and fundamental laboratory tests. The proposed method is based on a correlation between the undrained shear strength $s_u$ and the cone resistance $q_t$, without introduction of the total overburden stress into the $s_u-q_t$ correlation. As a result, no additional testing procedure for collecting undisturbed soils samples is required, which can reduce overall testing cost. To verify the proposed method, 4 test sites, which consist of a variety of soil conditions, are selected and used for comparison between measured and predicted undrained shear strength. From comparison, it is seen that predicted values of $s_u$ using the proposed method match well those from measured results.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.73-83
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• 2006

Seepage analysis through unsaturated zone based on the theory of unsaturated flow is commonly performed to evaluate dam safety. However, the concepts of unsaturated soil behavior have not been transferred into the hands of practicing geotechnical engineers since the problems involving unsaturated soils often have the appearances of being extremely complex. There is variability and uncertainty associated with the unsaturated hydraulic properties that in turn will lead to variability in predicting unsaturated soil behavior such as seepage rate and the pore water pressure distribution. In this paper, measurements of the soil-water characteristic curve and saturated hydraulic conductivity for the core material of dam were conducted. Then, finite element stochastic analysis was used to capture the effect of unsaturated hydraulic properties on the seepage behavior of dam. It is observed that the amount of seepage increases, as the values of unsaturated soil parameters a and n increase. The values of m and p showed opposite trend.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.45-54
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• 2006

Resistivity cone penetrometer test (RCPT) can be employed at a relatively low cost for in-situ delineation of subsurface contamination. While the resistivity measurement has a potential to investigate the subsurface contamination, resistivity measurements alone will lead to some degree of ambiguity in the results. In this study, capacitance measurement was incorporated into the RCPT to overcome the ambiguity inherent in electrical resistivity measurements. This study is focused on verifying the applicability of resistivity and capacitance measurements of CPT module to provide information on subsurface contaminated by heavy metal and petroleum hydrocarbon. Laboratory model tests were performed to evaluate the sensitivity of the measured resistivity and relative capacitance on the water content and different types of contaminants. Test results show that simultaneous measurement of electrical resistivity and capacitance can give more reliable information on subsurface contamination. Electrical measurements of the CPT module showed high applicability to be used in detecting saturated soils contaminated by heavy metal and diesel plume floating above the groundwater table.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 1995

Chemical assessment of soil pollution with heavy metals was made by analyzing the changes in pH, ionic strength, cationic concentration and chemical species in the soil solution. Saturated pastes of the unpolluted soils were made by adding solutions containing Cu or Cd and the final Cu or Cd concentrations were in the range of 0 to 400 mg/kg. After equilibrating for 24 hours at $25^{\circ}C$, the soil solution was extracted from the saturated pastes by the vacuum extraction method and analyzed for pH, electrical conductivity, Cu, Cd, cations and inorganic ligands. Chemical species in soil solution were calculated by the GEOCHEM-PC program employing the input variables of pH, ionic strength(${\mu}$), molar concentrations of cations and ligands. Increasing Cu or Cd additions lowered pH of the soil solution but increased concentrations of Ca, Mg and K resulting in increases of ${\mu}$ of the soil solution. Effects of Cu on lowering pH and increasing ${\mu}$ were greater than those of Cd. Concentrations of Cu or Cd in soil solution were relatively very low as compared to those of additions, but increased linearly with increasing additions representing that concentrations of Cu were higher than those of Cd. At 400 mg/kg additions, concentrations of Cu were in the range of 0.51 to 11.70 mg/L but those of Cd were 34.4 to 88.5 mg/L. Major species of Ca, Mg and K were free ions and these species were equivalent to greater than 95 molar % of the existing respective molar concentrations. These cationic species were not changed by Cu or Cd additions. Major species of Cu in lower pH soils such as SiCL and SL were free $Cu^{2+}$ (>95 molar %), but those in LS having a higher pH were free $Cu^{2-}$ and Cu-hydroxide complex. At 100 mg Cu/kg treatment, $Cu^{2+}$ and Cu-hydroxide complex were equivalent to 73 and 22.4 molar %, respectively. These respective percentages were decreased and increased correspondingly with increasing Cu treatments. Major species of Cd in soil solution were free $Cd^{2+}$ and Cd-chloride complex, representing 79 to 85 molar % for $Cd^{2+}$ and 13 to 20% for Cd-chloride complex at 10 mg Cd/kg treatment. With increasing Cd additions to 400 mg/kg, $Cd^{2+}$ species decreased to $40{\sim}47%$ but Cd-chloride complexes increased to $53{\sim}60$ molar %. These results demonstrated that soil contamination with heavy metals caused an adverse effect on the plant nutritional aspects of soil solution by lowering pH, increasing cations temporarily, and increasing free metal concentrations and species enough to be phytotoxic.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.147-158
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• 2004

Laboratory dynamic tests are carried out to assess the liquefaction potential of saturated sands in most countries. However, simple results such as the maximum cyclic shear stress and the number of cycles at initial liquefaction are used in the experimental assessment of liquefaction potential, even though various results can be obtained from the dynamic test. In addition, it seemed to be inefficient because more than three dynamic tests with different stress ratio have to be carried out to draw a liquefaction resistance experimental curve. To improve the present assessment method fur liquefaction potential, a new critical resistible characteristic far soil liquefaction is proposed and verified through conventional cyclic triaxial tests with Jumunjin sand. In the proposed method, various experimental data such as effective stress path, stress-strain relationship, and the change of excess pore water pressure can be used in the determination of cumulative plastic shear strains at every 1/4 cycle. Especially, the critical cumulative plastic shear strain to initiate liquefaction can be defined in a specific point called a phase change point in the effective stress path and it can be calculated from a hysteric curve of stress-strain relationship up to this point. Through this research, it is found that the proposed cumulative plastic shear strain can express the dissipated energy to resist dynamic loads and consider the realistic soil dynamic behavior of saturated sands reasonably. It is also found that the critical plastic shear strain can be used as a registible index of soils to represent the critical soil dynamic state, because it seems to include no effect of large deformation.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.145-155
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• 2012

The matric suction and volumetric water content of Jumunin standard sand with a relative density of 60% were measured using an Automated Soil-Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) apparatus during both drying and wetting processes. The test time for the drying process was longer than that for the wetting process, because the flow of water is likely to be protected by air trapped in voids within the soils during the drying process. Based on the matric suction and volumetric water content, the SWCC was estimated using the model proposed by van Genuchten (1980). For the drying process, the unsaturated fitting parameters ${\alpha}$, n, and m were 0.399, 8.586, and 0.884, respectively; for the wetting process, the values were 0.548, 5.625, and 8.220, respectively. The hysteresis phenomenon occurred in the SWCCs, which means the SWCC of the drying process is not matched with the SWCC of the wetting process. Using these unsaturated parameters, we estimated the Suction Stress Characteristic Curve (SSCC), based on the relationship between suction stress and the effective degree of saturation. The suction stress showed a rapid decrease when the matric suction exceeds the Air Entry Value (AEV). Therefore, the effective stress of unsaturated soils is different from that of saturated soils when the matric suction exceeds the AEV. The suction stress of the drying process exceeds that of the wetting process for a given effective degree of saturation. The hysteresis phenomenon was also recognized in SSCCs. The hysteresis phenomenon of SSCCs arises from that of SWCCs, which is induced by the ink bottle effect and the contact angle effect. In the case of a sandy slope, the suction stress is positive and acts to enhance the slope stability as the water infiltrates the ground, but is negative when the suction stress exceeds the AEV. The results obtained for the wetting process should be applied in analyses of slope stability, because the process of water infiltration into ground is similar to the wetting process.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.329-333
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• 2006

Most of volcanic ash soils in South Korea are distributed in Jeju province which is an island placed on southern part of Korea and has steep slope mountain area. There are many soils containing high contents of organic matter (OM) derived from volcanic ash in Jejudo, also. Therefore, irrigation and drainage in volcanic ash soil different with general soil which has low OM content have to be applied with another management way, but studies searching appropriate methods for them are set on insufficient situation because the area of volcanic ash soil in South Korea is only 1.3% (130,000ha). This study was conducted for analysis of soil water content and irrigation quantity appropriate for crops cultivated in volcanic ash soil with high OM content. Although soils with different soil color have the same soil texture, soil water characteristics curve by soil color showed the difference of water retention capability by OM content. But, this characteristics classified with soil color could be unified by scaling technique with similitude analysis method which get dimensionless water content using a present water content, a residual water content and saturated water content (or water content at 10kPa). A relation of gravimetric soil water content (GSWC) and dimensionless water content by the results showed a form of power function. The dimensionless water content (DWC) express a relative saturation degree of present water content. This was also expressed by van Genuchten model which describe the relation between relative saturation degrees and matric potentials. These results on soil water characteristics curve (SWCC) of volcanic ash soil will be the basic of irrigation plan in area having high organic contents into soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.33-42
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of soil grain size and its distribution on soil-water characteristic. To do this, soil-water characteristic tests were conducted on Saemangeum silt using the axis translation technique. For comparison, the test was also conducted on Jumunjin sand. Using the test results, the soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs) of Saemangeum silt and Jumunjin sand were predicted by Van Genuchten model. By comparison and analysis between two SWCCs, the silt shows higher values of matric suction, water content, and air entry value than the sand. On the other hand, the sand has higher values of Van Genuchten model parameters of ${\alpha}$, $n$, $m$ than the silt. It indicates that the SWCC is significantly dependent on the structure of soils. In other words, if a soil has relatively high grain size and poor grain size distribution curve, the values of saturated volumetric water content, residual volumetric water content, and air entry value are small, and the variation of volumetric water content is high in accordance with the matric suction variation, and consequently it shows a narrow range of funicular region.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.5 s.174
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• pp.513-523
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• 2005

The contamination of soils and groundwaters in the Dalcheon mine area, Ulsan, is investigated, and a natural attenuation capacity on redox and pH is evaluated. Arsenopyrite, the major source of arsenic pollution in the Dalcheon mine area, is contained up to $2\%$ in tailings. Furthermore, As-bearing minerals such as loellingite, nicolite, rammelsbergite, gersdorffite cobaltite and pyrite are also source of arsenic contamination, which show various concentration of arsenic each other. Surface of pyrite and arsenopyrite in tailings partly oxidized into Fe-arsenates and Fe-oxides, which means a progressive weathering process. There is no relationship between pH and arsenic content in groundwaters, otherwise Eh and arsenic concentration in unsaturated and saturated groundwater shows positive relationship. RMB (Red Mud Bauxite) could be useful as a trigger on natural attenuation due to superior ability of removal capacity of arsenic when contaminated soil and groundwater in the Dalcheon mine area are remediated.