• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.775-786
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• 2022

In the plant structures including nuclear power plants, penetrations are frequently installed in walls and slabs to reinforce facilities during operation, and reinforcing bars are sometimes cut off during concrete coring. Since these penetrations are not considered at the design or construction stage, cutting of reinforcing bar during opening installation is actually damage to the structure, structural integrity evaluation considering the stress transition range or effective width around the new penetration is necessary. In this study, various nonlinear analyses and static loading experiments are performed to evaluate the effect of reinforcing bar cutting that occurs when a penetration is newly installed in the shear wall of wall-type building of operating nuclear power plant. In addition, the decrease in wall stiffness due to the installed new penetration and cutting of reinforcing bars is evaluated and the stress and strain distributions of rebars around penetration are also measured.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.75-85
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• 2023

In areas where excavation works are carried out, it is very important to select a retaining wall method to minimize ground water level and ground subsidence changes. In this regard, the use of Secant Pile Wall(SPW) method, which can complement the disadvantages of the CIP method, is gradually domestic increasing for the construction of retaining wall method. This study investigated the design elements of the SPW method and the interrelationship between the structural stability factors of the wall. The design elements for the retaining method are the overlap length between piles, pile diameter, and the specifications of the H-Beam specifications, while the structural stability factors of the wall are the bending stress, shear stress, horizontal displacement, and concrete strength. The study results showed that the pile diameter and H-Beam specifications have a significant impact on the capacity of the H-Beam, the overlap length and pile diameter have a significant impact on the horizontal displacement, and the pile diameter and H-Beam specifications have a significant impact on the required strength of the concrete.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.13-21
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• 2006

When enforced earth is used for the retain wall and four walls, the most important thing would be how to maximize the land utilization. Accordingly, in case of enforced earth, we pile up the minimal height of earth ($20{\sim}50\;cm$) and harden the earth using a static dynamic hardening machine. In this paper, we tried to analyze and compare the stress transformation characteristics of reinforced weathered granite soil with geosynthetics when repetitive load is added to the enforced earth structure and when static load is added. The result is that the cohesion component of the strength increased greatly and the friction component decreased slightly.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.21-28
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• 2010

Decomposed granite soil is the most common type of soils. The measurement of the stress-strain-strength behavior of anisotropic decomposed granite soils is very important for the deformation and stability analysis of slopes, retaining walls, excavations. A series of unsaturated-drained triaxial compression tests were performed to know unsaturated strength properties. The sample had three different angles of the axial (major principal) direction to the sedimentation plane (compaction plane): 0, 45 and 90 degrees. The compression strain of specimens subjected to an isotropic compression was strongly influenced by the sedimentation angle. In addition, the time dependence was independent of the sedimentation angle in relation to the deformation behavior during the secondary compression process. The effect of the sedimentation angle on the triaxial compression strength and deformation was clearly shown with low confining stress. The effect of the sedimentation angle on the compressive strength and deformation was more evident in saturated specimens. A new method of predicting the shear strength of unsaturated decomposed granite soils, considering compaction angles, was proposed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.237-248
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• 2022

Nowadays, more and more subway tunnels were planed and constructed underneath the ground of urban cities to relieve the congested traffic. Potential damage may occur in existing tunnel if the new tunnel is constructed too close. So far, previous studies mainly focused on the tunnel-tunnel interactions with circular shape. The difference between circular and horseshoe shaped tunnel in terms of deformation mechanism is not fully investigated. In this study, three-dimensional numerical parametric studies were carried out to explore the effect of different tunnel shapes on the complicated tunnel-tunnel interaction problem. Parameters considered include volume loss, tunnel stiffness and relative density. It is found that the value of volume loss play the most important role in the multi-tunnel interactions. For a typical condition in this study, the maximum invert settlement and gradient along longitudinal direction of horseshoe shaped tunnel was 50% and 96% larger than those in circular case, respectively. This is because of the larger vertical soil displacement underneath existing tunnel. Due to the discontinuous hoop axial stress in horseshoe shaped tunnel, significant shear stress was mobilized around the axillary angles. This resulted in substantial bending moment at the bottom plate and side walls of horseshoe shaped tunnel. Consequently, vertical elongation and horizontal compression in circular existing tunnel were 45% and 33% smaller than those in horseshoe case (at monitored section X/D = 0), which in latter case was mainly attributed to the bending induced deflection. The radial deformation stiffness of circular tunnel is more sensitive to the Young's modulus compared with horseshoe shaped tunnel. This is because of that circular tunnel resisted the radial deformation mainly by its hoop axial stress while horseshoe shaped tunnel do so mainly by its flexural rigidity. In addition, the reduction of soil stiffness beneath the circular tunnel was larger than that in horseshoe shaped tunnel at each level of relative density, indicating that large portion of tunneling effect were undertaken by the ground itself in circular tunnel case.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.455-464
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• 2023

Seismologists now suggest that the earth has entered an active seismic period; many earthquake-related events are occurring globally. Consequently, numerous casualties, as well as economic losses due to earthquakes, have been reported in recent years. Primarily, significant and colossal damage occurs in reinforced concrete (RC) buildings with masonry infill wall systems, and the construction of these types of structures have increased worldwide. According to a report from the Ministry of Education in the Republic of Korea, many buildings were built with RC frames with masonry infill walls in the Republic of Korea during the 1980s. For years, most structures of this type have been school buildings, and since the Pohang earthquake in 2017, the government of the Republic of Korea has paid close attention to this social event and focused on damage from earthquakes. From a long-term research perspective, damage from structural collapse due to the short column effect has been a major concern, specifically because the RC frame with a masonry infill wall system is the typical form of structure for school buildings. Therefore, the short column effect has recently been a major topic for research. This study compares one RC frame with four different types of RC frames with masonry infill wall systems. Structural damage due to the short column effect is clearly analyzed, as the result of this research is giving in a higher infill wall system produces a greater shear force on the connecting point between the infill wall system and the column. The study is expected to be a useful reference for research on the short column effect in RC frames with masonry infill wall systems.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.349-361
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• 2024

Excessive torsional behaviour is one of the major reasons for failure of buildings, as inferred from past earthquakes. Numerous seismic codes across the world specify a displacement-based or drift-based criterion for classifying buildings as torsionally irregular. In recent years, quite a few researchers have pointed out some of the inherent deficiencies associated with the current codal guidelines on torsional irregularity. This short communication paper aims to envisage the need for a revision of the displacement-based guidelines on torsional irregularity, and further highlight the appropriateness of a rotation-based criterion. A set of 6 reinforced concrete building models with asymmetric shear walls are analysed using ETABS v18.0.2, by varying the number of stories from 1 to 9, and the torsional irregularity coefficient of various stories is calculated using the displacement-based formula. Since rotation about the vertical axis is a direct indication of the twist experienced by a building, the calculated torsional irregularity coefficients of all stories are compared with the corresponding floor rotations. The conflicting results obtained for the torsional irregularity coefficients are projected through five categories, namely mismatch with floor rotations, inconsistency in trend, lack of clarity in incorporation of negative values, sensitivity to low values of displacement and error conceived in the mathematical formulation. The findings indicate that the irregularity coefficient does not accurately represent the torsional behaviour of buildings in a realistic sense. The Indian seismic code-based values of 1.2 and 1.4, which are used to characterize buildings as torsionally irregular are observed to be highly sensitive to the numerical values of displacements, rather than the actual degree of rotation. The study thus emphasizes the revision of current guidelines based on a more relevant rotation-based or eccentricity-based approach.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.165-182
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• 2024

Grouted sleeve splice (GSS) is an effective type of connection applied in the precast concrete structures as it has the advantages of rapidly assembly and reliable strength. To decrease the weight and cost of vertical rebar connection in precast shear walls, a light-weight sleeve is designed according to the thick-cylinder theory. Mechanical behaviour of the light-weighted GSS is investigated through experimental analysis. Two failure modes, such as rebar fracture failure and rebar pull-out failure, are found. The load-displacement curves exhibit four different stages: elastic stage, yield stage, strengthening stage, and necking stage. The bond strength between the rebar and the grout increases gradually from outer position to inner position of the sleeve, and it reaches the maximum value at the centre of the anchorage length. A finite element model predicting the mechanical properties of the light-weighted GSS is developed based on the Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) model and the Brittle Cracking (BC) model. The effect of the rebar anchorage length is significant, while the increase of the thickness of sleeve and the grout strength are not very effective. A model for estimating ultimate load, including factors of inner diameter of sleeves, anchorage length, and rebar diameter, is proposed. The proposed model shows good agreement with various test data.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.17-23
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• 2007

To construct an ideal geosynthetic reinforced soil retaining wall (GRS-RW), the facing of the wall should be flexible enough to accommodate a large deformation of the supporting ground and to develop the large tensile force in reinforcements during wall construction as long as the stability is ensured, but should be rigid enough to be stiff and stable as well as durable and aesthetically acceptable for a long life time when the wall is in service. Facing conditions during the construction and service of the wall are quite different. So it is difficult to be satisfied all these conditions with the current construction method which is mainly used in reinforced wall construction in Korea. Most of this contradiction could be solved by the staged construction procedure. According to the results of cases and references analyses, stage construction procedures make it possible to accommodate large deformation of the supporting ground and backfill without losing the stability of the wall, and to derive the tensile strength of reinforcement causing deformation of the facing. When the facing is a full-height rigid one, it also appeared almost impossible to occur a local shear failure of the active zone, and pull-out failure of reinforcements. Therefore, GRS-RWs having a full-height rigid facing have been constructed by the staged construction procedures that matched well with the theory of reinforced soil, which had outstanding stability and durability, and thus could be used for railways and bridge abutments in Korea in the future.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.61-76
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• 1998

Various kinds of reinforced soil methods have been developed by many researchers or companies for their economic merits mainly. These methods have generally used sandy soils which have high permeability as embanking or backfill material. That is because, if poor embanking materials, especially like a clayey soil which has very low permeability, are used in a reinforced soil embanking, and if excessive pore water pressure is produced by external factors, the friction resistance between reinforcing members and Boils decrease, as a result possible damage or collapse of the body of a reinforced embankment. In fact, clayey Boils can also be used as a embanking materials with reinforcement which has high permeable capacity, and are expected to be able to dissipate the excess pore water pressure effectively. In this study reinforcing effects have been examined through a serries of direct shear tests in which clayey soils are reinforced with nonwoven geotextiles of which permeability is very high and tensile strength is relatively weaker than geogrids which are usually used in reinforced soil wall. Even though such nonwoven geotextile are used as reinforcement of high saturated clayey soils. the test results show the possibility that nonwoven geoteztiles could be used as a reinforcement for reinforced soil walls effectively.