• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.150-159
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• 2013

It is generally well known that the stratification of thermal energy in heat stores can be improved by increasing the aspect ratio (the height-to-width ratio) of the stores. Accordingly, it will be desirable to apply a high aspect ratio so as to demonstrate the good thermal performance of heat stores. However, as the aspect ratio of a store increases, the height of the store become larger compared to its width, which may be unfavorable for the structural stability of the store. Therefore, to determine an optimum aspect ratio of heat stores, a quantitative mechanical stability assessment should be performed in addition to thermal performance evaluations. In the present study, we numerically investigated the mechanical stability of silo-shaped rock caverns for underground thermal energy storage at different aspect ratios. The applied aspect ratios ranged from 1 to 6 and the mechanical stability was examined based on factor of safety using a shear strength reduction method. The results from the present study showed that the factor of safety of rock caverns tended to decrease with the increase in aspect ratio and the stress ratio of the surrounding rock mass was influential to the stability of the caverns. In addition, the numerical results demonstrated that under the same conditions of rock mass properties and aspect ratio, mechanical stability could be improved by the reduction in cavern size (storage volume), which indicates that one can design high-aspect-ratio rock caverns by dividing a single large cavern into multiple small caverns.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.19-29
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• 2009

In this study, a numerical analysis was performed to predict the sequential behavior of anchored retaining wall where the failure accident took place, and verified accuracy of prediction through the comparisons between prediction and field measurement. The emphasis was given to the wall behaviors and the variation of sliding surface based on the two different methods of elasto-plastic and finite element (shear strength reduction technique). Through the comparison study, it is shown that the bending moment and the soil pressure at construction stages produce quite similar results in both the elasto-plastic and finite element method. However, predicted wall deflections using elasto-plastic method show underestimate results compared with measured deflections. This demonstrates that the elasto-plastic method does not clearly consider the influence of soil-wall-reinforcement interaction, so that the tension force (anchor force and earth pressure) on the wall is overestimated. Based on the results obtained, it is found that finite element method using shear strength reduction method can be effectively used to perform the back calculation analysis in the anchored retaining wall, whereas elasto-plastic method can be applicable to the preliminary design of retaining wall with suitable safety factor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.213-220
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• 2000

Numerical modeling of cut slope has some limits in simulating the real slopes. In the case of 2D analysis of slope stability, it is assumed that slope is simply straight even when it is concave or convex in plan view. In this study, 3D analysis in curved shape slopes has been conducted for the comparison with 2D analysis in terms of failure mode and factor of safety. For this, 3D analysis by FLAC3D was compared with 2D analysis in plane strain condition and axi-symmetric model condition by FLAC. It was also observed how safety factors of slopes were affected by the variation of the tensile strength and cohesion, which are important variables to decide whether the slope fails or not. 2D analysis of concave slopes under plane strain condition showed much smaller safety factors by 16-40 % errors depending on the radius of curvature of slopes, compared to the more realistic values from 3D analysis. In case of convex slopes, the lower values by 7-10 % has been reported. 2D analysis of axi-symmetric model showed also smaller safety factors by 6-10 % and by 2-4 %, in case of concave and convex slopes, respectively. Such results are expected to contribute to the better understanding of failure process and could be applied for improved design of slopes.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2015

In the slope stability analysis and design, Limit Equilibrium Method (LEM) and Shear Strength Reduction technique (SSR) are mainly used. Both methods are able to perform two and three dimensional analysis. SSR is considered to be more sensitive and more reasonable than LEM by many researchers. However, in practice LEM is still widely used because of the increase of analysis time and complexity of the model in SSR. In this study, three dimensional analysis of the protruding rock slope is performed by SSR in order to study the effects of protruding length using rock slope FLAC 3D. In this study, as results of analysis variations of the safety factor have been studied according to slope angle, slope height, the soil strength, protruding slope length projected variables. The results show that the factor of safety as more affected by the shapes of the protruding rock slope than the rock strength.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 2005

In this paper, a numerical comparison of predictions by limit equilibrium analysis and finite difference analysis is presented for slope/soil-nail system. Special attention is given to the coupled analysis based on the explicit-finite-difference code, FLAC 2D. To this end, an internal routine (FISH) was developed to calculate a factor of safety for a soil nail slope according to shear strength reduction method. The case of coupled analyses was performed for soil nails in slope in which the soil nails response and slope stability are considered simultaneously. In this study, by using these methods, the failure surfaces and factors of safety were compared and analyzed in several cases, such as toe, middle and top of the slope, respectively. Furthermore, the coupled method based on shear strength reduction method was verified by the comparison with other analysis results.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.39-52
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• 2011

This paper describes a new numerical analysis technique in stability analysis for a slope reinforced with pressure grouted soil nails. The installing effect of pressure grouted soil nails can be simulated in this method. Shear strength reduction method associated with finite element method is used for slope stability analysis. Factors of safety for a slope reinforced with pressure grouted soil nails are compared with those for a natural slope and a slope reinforced with gravity grouted soil nails in order to investigate their reinforcing effects. More than 50% increase in the factor of safety is obtained when the slope is reinforced with pressure grouted soil nails compared to the one with gravity grouted soil nails. The reinforcing effects of pressure grouted soil nails become obvious with increase in their length. The reinforcing mechanism of the pressure grouted soil nails for the slope stability can be explained by the slope failure surface expanding gradually toward the backfill. The increased stability of the slope reinforced with pressure grouted soil nails results mainly from their improved pull-out resistance.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2008

The lateral strength test of bending type was done to investigate the lateral capacity of the double bolt connection of domestic larix glulam according to bolt spacing. In the shear specimen, which is bolted connection in the inserted plate type, the hole of bolt was made, changing the diameter of bolt (12 mm and 16 mm), the number of bolt (single bolt : control and double bolt), the direction of bolt row (in parallel to grain : Type-A and in perpendicular to grain : Type-B) and the bolt spacing (Type-A : 4 d and 7 d and Type-B : 3 d and 5 d). Lateral capacity and failure mode of bolt connection were compared according to conditions. In prototype design (KBCS, 2000), the reduction factor of the allowable shear resistance that the bolt spacing is reduced was calculated. The results were as follows. 1) Bearing stress per bolt in the single and double bolt connection of Type-A was directly proportional to bolt diameter and bolt spacing. Bearing stress of Type-B decreased as bolt diameter was increased, and decreased by 2~10% when bolt diameter was increased. 2) In the single bolt connection and the double bolt connection of Type-A, the splitted failure was formed in the edge direction. When the bolt spacing was 3 d in Type-B, bolt was yielded more in the part of tension than in the part of compression, and the splitted failure started at the bolt in the part of tension. In the 5 d spacing specimen, the bolt in the part of tension was yielded similarly to bolt in the part of compression, and the splitted failure started in the part of compression. 3) In the prototype design, the reduction factor was calculated by non-dimensionizing the yielding load in the standard of bolt spacing (Type A : 7 d and Type B : 5 d). In 12 mm bolt connection, the reduction factor of bolt spacing 4 d (type-A) and single bolt connection was 0.87 and 0.55, respectively, and the reduction factor of bolt spacing 3 d (Type-B) and single bolt connection was 0.91 and 0.55, respectively. In 16 mm bolt connection, the reduction factor of bolt spacing 4 d (type-A) and single bolt connection was 0.96 and 0.76, respectively, and the reduction factor of bolt spacing 3 d (Type-B) and single bolt connection was 0.91 and 0.77, respectively.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.143-152
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• 2020

The wind design of buildings is typically based on strength provisions under ultimate loads. This is unlike the ductility-based approach used in seismic design, which allows inelastic actions to take place in the structure under extreme seismic events. This research investigates the application of a similar concept in wind engineering. In seismic design, the elastic forces resulting from an extreme event of high return period are reduced by a load reduction factor chosen by the designer and accordingly a certain ductility capacity needs to be achieved by the structure. Two reasons have triggered the investigation of this ductility-based concept under wind loads. Firstly, there is a trend in the design codes to increase the return period used in wind design approaching the large return period used in seismic design. Secondly, the structure always possesses a certain level of ductility that the wind design does not benefit from. Many technical issues arise when applying a ductility-based approach under wind loads. The use of reduced design loads will lead to the design of a more flexible structure with larger natural periods. While this might be beneficial for seismic response, it is not necessarily the case for the wind response, where increasing the flexibility is expected to increase the fluctuating response. This particular issue is examined by considering a case study of a sixty-five-story high-rise building previously tested at the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario using a pressure model. A three-dimensional finite element model is developed for the building. The wind pressures from the tested rigid model are applied to the finite element model and a time history dynamic analysis is conducted. The time history variation of the straining actions on various structure elements of the building are evaluated and decomposed into mean, background and fluctuating components. A reduction factor is applied to the fluctuating components and a modified time history response of the straining actions is calculated. The building components are redesigned under this set of reduced straining actions and its fundamental period is then evaluated. A new set of loads is calculated based on the modified period and is compared to the set of loads associated with the original structure. This is followed by non-linear static pushover analysis conducted individually on each shear wall module after redesigning these walls. The ductility demand of shear walls with reduced cross sections is assessed to justify the application of the load reduction factor "R".

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

Shallow failures occur frequently in both engineered and natural slopes in expansive soils. Rainfall infiltration is the most predominant triggering factor that contributes to slope failures in both expansive soils and clayey soils. However, slope failures in expansive soils have some distinct characteristics in comparison to slopes in conventional clayey soils. They typically undergo shallow failures with gentle sliding retrogression characteristics. The shallow sliding mass near the slope surface is typically in a state of unsaturated condition and will exhibit significant volume changes with increasing water content during rainfall periods. Many other properties or characteristics change such as the shear strength, matric suction including stress distribution change with respect to depth and time. All these parameters have a significant contribution to the expansive soil slopes instability and are difficult to take into consideration in slope stability analysis using traditional slope stability analysis methods based on principles of saturated soil mechanics. In this paper, commercial software VADOSE/W that can account for climatic factors is used to predict variation of matric suction with respect to time for an expansive soil cut slope in China, which is reported in the literature. The variation of factor of safety with respect to time for this slope is computed using SLOPE/W by taking account of shear strength reduction associated with loss of matric suction extending state-of-the art understanding of the mechanics of unsaturated soils.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.621-640
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• 2019

Quantitative stability assessment of underground cavities can be presented as a factor of safety based on the Shear Strength Reduction Method (SSRM). Also, SSRM is one of the stability evaluation methods commonly used in slope stability analysis. However, there is a lack of research that considers the relationship between the probability of occurrence of cavities in the ground and the potential failure surface of the slope at the same time. In this study, the effect of small underground cavities on the failure behavior of the slope was analyzed by using SSRM. Considering some of the glaciology studies, there is a case that suggests that there is a cavity effect inside the glacier in the condition that the glacier slides. In this study, the stability evaluation of underground cavities and slope stability analysis, where SSRM is used in geotechnical engineering field, was carried out considering simultaneous conditions. The slope stability analysis according to the shape and position change of underground cavities which are likely to occur in the lower part of a mountain road was analyzed by using SSRM in FLAC3D software and the influence of underground cavities on the slope factor of safety was confirmed. If there are underground cavities near slope potential failure surface, it will affect the calculation of a factor of safety. The results of this study are expected to be basic data on slope stability analysis with small underground cavities.