• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2007.09a
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• pp.481-501
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• 2007

Excessive rainfalls due to climatic changes can trigger an increase in rainfall-induced slope failures that pose real threats to both lives and properties. Many high slopes in residual soils could stand at a steep angle, but failed during or after rainfall. Commonly, these slopes have a deep groundwater table and negative pore-water pressures in the unsaturated zone above the groundwater table contribute to the shear strength of soil and consequently to factor of safety of the slope. Stability assessment of slope under rainfall requires information on rate of rainwater infiltration in the unsaturated zone and the resulting changes in pore-water pressure and shear strength of soil. This paper describes the application of unsaturated soil mechanics principles and theories in the assessment of rainfall effect on stability of slope through proper characterization of soil properties, measurement of negative pore-water pressures, seepage and slope stability analyses involving unsaturated and saturated soils. Factors controlling the rate of changes in factor of safety during rainfall and a preventive method to minimize infiltration are highlighted in this paper.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.811-818
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• 2005

Stability analyses on the 17 railroad cut-off soil slopes were carried out. The influences of rainfall infiltration on the slope stabilities were taken into account by seepage analyses using finite element method and by assuming ground water tables to be located adjacent to soil surface. The validity of those analyses were evaluated by comparing the slope failure characteristics between analysis results and the past failure records. The analyses were not appropriate to estimate the failure surface and the method considering only the increase of pore-water pressure (reduction of matric suction) as the influence of rainfall cannot appropriately estimate the surficial failures that occurred most of the cut-off soil slopes. For the better estimation of the surficial failure, the influence of water flows over slope surface which erode soil mass and/or increase driving force, should be evaluated and considered.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2005

This paper presents a case history of a geosynthetics-reinforced segmental retaining wall, which collapsed during a sever rainfall immediately after the completion of the wall construction. In an attempt to identify possible causes for the collapse, a comprehensive investigation was carried out including physical and strength tests on the backfill, stability analyses on the as-built design based on the current design approaches, and slope stability analyses with pore pressure consideration. The investigation revealed that the inappropriate as-built design and the bad-quality backfill were mainly responsible for the collapse. This paper describes the site condition including wall design, details of the results of investigation and finally, lessons learned. Practical significance of the findings from this study is also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.27-39
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• 2005

A finite difference program with 3-D governing equation expanded from 1-D self-weight consolidation is developed to analyze the consolidation behavior of surface dredged soil with horizontal drains. Various boundary conditions with horizontal drains and seepage pressure of pore water infiltrated to the drains are considered in the program. A laboratory soil chamber experiment for the consolidation of dredged soil is performed to validate the program and the measured settlement-time result is compared with the one predicted by the program. The influence of design conditions of horizontal drains such as horizontal installation spacing, installation depth and number of drain layers, on the consolidation is analyzed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2021

Injection grouting is one of the most common ground improvement practice to increase the strength and reduce the hydraulic conductivity of soils. Owing to the environmental concerns of conventional grout materials, such as cement-based or silicate-based materials, bio-inspired biogeotechnical approaches are considered to be new sustainable and environmentally friendly ground improvement methods. Biopolymers, which are excretory products from living organisms, have been shown to significantly reduce the hydraulic conductivity via pore-clogging and increase the strength of soils. To study the practical application of biopolymers for seepage and ground water control, in this study, we explored the injection capabilities of biopolymer-based grout materials in both linear aperture and particulate media (i.e., sand and glassbeads) considering different injection pressures, biopolymer concentrations, and flow channel geometries. The hydraulic conductivity control of a biopolymer-based grout material was evaluated after injection into sandy soil under confined boundary conditions. The results showed that the performance of xanthan gum injection was mainly affected by the injection pressure and pore geometry (e.g., porosity) inside the soil. Additionally, with an increase in the xanthan gum concentration, the injection efficiency diminished while the hydraulic conductivity reduction efficiency enhanced significantly. The results of this study provide the potential capabilities of injection grouting to be performed with biopolymer-based materials for field application.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.155-165
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• 2023

Hurricane Katrina swept New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, in 2005, causing more than 1,000 fatalities and severe damage to the flood protection system. Recovery activities are complete, however, clarifying failure mechanisms and devising resilient and cost-effective retrofitting techniques for the flood protection system are still of utmost importance to enhance the general structural integrity of water retaining structures. This study presents extensive centrifuge test results to find various failure mechanisms and effective retrofitting techniques for a levee system. The result confirmed the rotational failure and translational failure mechanisms for the London Ave. Canal levee and 17^th St. Canal levee, respectively. In addition, it found that the floodwalls with fresh waterstop in their joints perform better than those with old/weathered waterstop by decreasing pore water pressure build-up in the levee. Structural caps placed on the top of the joints between I-walls could also prevent local failure by spreading the load to surrounding walls. At the same time, the self-sealing bentonite-sand mixture installed along the riverside of floodwalls could mitigate the failure of floodwalls by blocking the infiltration of seepage water into the gap formed between levee soils and floodwalls.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.163-171
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• 2020

In this study, a large laboratory model experiment was conducted with the aim of developing an embankment reinforcement method to prevent overtopping, which is the main cause for the failure of agricultural reservoirs. The model experiment was carried out with concrete and asphalt as a permanent reinforcement method and with geomembrane as the emergency method at a deteriorated homogeneous reservoir. Under the non-reinforced conditions, the pattern of the failure appeared in several scour directions from the downstream slope as the overtopping began, and the width and depth of the erosion were magnified as it gradually moved to the dam crest. Under the conditions reinforced with asphalt and concrete, the overtopping was stabilized. In the case of the concrete reinforcement, it was found that the slope of the riprap boundary exhibited downward erosion by the current; thus, it was necessary to construct an extension up to the riprap joint of the upstream and downstream sides to prevent the expansion of the failure. Under the conditions reinforced with the geomembrane sheet, the overtopping was stabilized, and no seepage was found that required the emergency reinforcement method. Asphalt, concrete, and geomembrane sheet reinforcements have been shown to be capable of delaying failure for about 1 hour and 40 minutes compared to the non-reinforcement conditions. The reinforcement method is considered to be a very effective method to prevent disasters during overtopping. The pore water pressure can be used as useful data to predict the risk of failure at an embankment.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.109-120
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• 2017

Groundwater seepage into a tunnel is one of the main causes triggering tunnel collapse and the consequent ground subsidence. Thus, it is important to estimate adequately the groundwater inflow rate and porewater pressure change during tunneling with time elapse. In current practice, Goodman's analytical solution (or image tunnel method) assuming homogeneous ground condition around a tunnel is commonly used for estimating groundwater inflow rate. However, the generally-used analytical solution for estimating groundwater inflow rate does not consider groundwater level drawdown and permeability change with depth, and the inflow rate can be overestimated in design phase. In this study, parametric study was performed in order to investigate the effect of groundwater level drawdown and permeability reduction with depth, and transient flow analysis was carried out for studying the inflow rate change as well as groundwater level and porewater pressure change around a tunnel with time elapse.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.485-496
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• 2020

Recent changes in the disaster environment have greatly increased the possibility of internal erosion in deteriorated reservoirs; thus, countermeasure methods are required to enhance the drainage performance of embankments. Sand filters have been mainly used to prevent internal erosion; however, due to the sand depletion and environmental problems, new alternative materials are required to replace the sand in the filter zone. In this study, crushed stone was used instead of sand as a material that could satisfy permeability, material supply, demanding conditions, and economic efficiency. Although crushed stone has excellent drainage performance, it has a clogging phenomenon due to its high permeability. Accordingly, the materials need to be separated with a geotextile wrapping method. Additionally, the 3D numerical analysis and a large model experiment were conducted to evaluate the seepage characteristics and in-site application of the crushed stone filter. As a result, the crushed stone filter showed an excellent dispersion effect by reducing the pore water pressure by about 9.5 times that of the sand filter. In addition, it was shown that the safety factor for piping increased significantly by reducing internal erosion. When comparing the economics and supply and demand conditions of the material, crushed stone was evaluated as an effective method to reduce the internal erosion of embankments at deteriorated reservoirs.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.519-529
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• 2021

In coal mining activities, the abutment stress of the coal has to undergo cyclic loading and unloading, affecting the strength and seepage characteristics of coal; additionally, it can cause dynamic disasters, posing a major challenge for the safety of coal mine production. To improve the understanding of the dynamic disaster mechanism of gas outburst and rock burst coupling, triaxial devices are applied to axial pressure cyclic loading-unloading tests under different axial stress peaks and different pore pressures. The existing empirical formula is use to perform a non-linear regression fitting on the relationship between stress and permeability, and the damage rate of permeability is introduced to analyze the change in permeability. The results show that the permeability curve obtained had "memory", and the peak stress was lower than the conventional loading path. The permeability curve and the volume strain curve show a clear symmetrical relationship, being the former in the form of a negative power function. Owing to the influence of irreversible deformation, the permeability difference and the damage of permeability mainly occur in the initial stage of loading-unloading, and both decrease as the number of cycles of loading-unloading increase. At the end of the first cycle and the second cycle, the permeability decreased in the range of 5.777 - 8.421 % and 4.311-8.713 %, respectively. The permeability decreases with an increase in the axial stress peak, and the damage rate shows the opposite trend. Under the same conditions, the permeability of methane is always lower than that of helium, and it shows a V-shape change trend with increasing methane pressures, and the permeability of the specimen was 3 MPa > 1 MPa > 2 MPa.