• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.53-66
• /
• 2015

Plastic wastes, particularly polyethylene terephthalate (PET) generated from used bottled water constitute a worldwide environmental issue. Reusing the PET waste for geotechnical applications not only reduces environmental burdens of handling the waste, but also improves inherent engineering properties of soil. This paper investigated factors affecting shear strength improvement of PET-mixed residual soil. Four variables were considered: (i) plastic content; (ii) plastic slenderness ratio; (iii) plastic size; and (iv) soil particle size. A series of unconfined compression tests were performed to determine the optimum configurations for promoting the shear strength improvement. The results showed that the optimum slenderness ratio and PET content for shear strength improvement were 1:3 and 1.5%, respectively. Large PET pieces (i.e., $1.0cm^2$) were favorable for fine-grained residual soil, while small PET pieces (i.e., $0.5cm^2$) were favorable for coarse-grained residual soil. Higher shear strength improvement was obtained for PET-mixed coarse-grained residual soil (148%) than fine-grained residual soils (117%). The orientation of plastic pieces in soil and frictional resistance developed between soil particles and PET surface are two important factors affecting the shear strength performance of PET-mixed soil.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.639-655
• /
• 2017

The binary mixture consists of two types of granular media with different physical attributes and sizes, which can be characterized by the percentage of large granules by weight (P) and the particle size ratio (${\alpha}$). Researchers determine that two thresholds ($P_S$ and $P_L$) exist for the peak shear strength of binary mixtures, i.e., at $P{\leq}P_S$, the peak shear strength is controlled by the small granules; at $P{\leq}P_L$, the peak shear strength is controlled by the large granules; at $P_S{\leq}P{\leq}P_L$, the peak shear strength is governed by both the large and small granules. However, the thresholds of binary mixtures with different ${\alpha}$ values, and the explanation related to the inner details of binary mixtures to account for why these thresholds exist, require further confirmation. This paper considers the mechanical behavior of binary mixtures with DEM analysis. The thresholds of binary mixtures are found to be strongly related to their coordination numbers $Z_L$ for all values of ${\alpha}$, where $Z_L$ denotes the partial coordination number only between the large particles. The arrangement structure of the large particles is examined when P approaches the thresholds, and a similar arrangement structure of large particles is formed in both 2D and 3D particle systems.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.409-420
• /
• 2017

This paper theoretically studies the cyclic behavior of hybrid connections between steel coupling beams and concrete shear walls with embedded steel columns. Finite element models of connections with long and short embedded steel columns are built in ABAQUS and validated against the test results in the companion paper. Parametric studies are carried out using the validated FE model to determine the key influencing factors on the load-bearing capacity of connections. A close-form solution of the load-bearing capacity of connections is proposed by considering the contributions from the compressive strength of concrete at the interface between the embedded beam and concrete, shear yielding of column web in the tensile region, and shear capacity of column web and concrete in joint zone. The results show that the bond slip between embedded steel members and concrete should be considered which can be simulated by defining contact boundary conditions. It is found that the loadbearing capacity of connections strongly depends on the section height, flange width and web thickness of the embedded column. The accuracy of the proposed calculation method is validated against test results and also verified against FE results (with differences within 10%). It is recommended that embedded steel columns should be placed along the entire height of shear walls to facilitate construction and enhance the ductility. The thickness and section height of embedded columns should be increased to enhance the load-bearing capacity of connections. The stirrups in the joint zone should be strengthened and embedded columns with very small section height should be avoided.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.139-151
• /
• 2022

The mechanical properties of expansive soil are very unstable, highly sensitive to water, and thus easy to cause major engineering accidents. In this paper, the expansive soil foundation pit project of the East Huada Square in the eastern suburb of Chengdu was studied, the moisture content of the expansive soil was considered as an important factor that affecting the mechanics properties of expansive soil and the stability of the non-equal-length double-row piles in the foundation pit support. Three groups of direct shear tests were carried out and the quantitative relationships between the moisture content and shear strength τ, cohesion c, internal friction angle φ were obtained. The effect of cohesion and internal friction angle on the maximum displacement and the maximum bending moment of piles were analyzed by the finite element software MIDAS/GTS (Geotechnical and Tunnel Analysis System). Results show that the higher the moisture content, the smaller the matrix suction, and the smaller the shear strength; the cohesion and the internal friction angle are exponentially related to the moisture content, and both are negatively correlated. The maximum displacement and the maximum bending moment of the non-equal length double-row piles decrease with the increase of the cohesion and the internal friction angle. When the cohesion is greater than 33 kPa or the internal friction angle is greater than 25.5°, the maximum displacement and maximum bending moment of the piles are relatively small, however, once crossing the points (the corresponding moisture content value is 24.4%), the maximum displacement and the maximum bending moment will increase significantly. Therefore, in order to ensure the stability and safety of the foundation pit support structure of the East Huada Square, the moisture content of the expansive soil should not exceed 24.4%.

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

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.43-74
• /
• 2022

Machine learning technique is recently opening new opportunities to identify the complex shear transfer mechanisms of reinforced concrete (RC) beam members. This study employed 1224 shear test specimens to train decision tree-based machine learning (ML) programs, by which strong correlations between shear capacity of RC beams and key input parameters were affirmed. In addition, shear contributions of concrete and shear reinforcement (the so-called V_c and V_s) were identified by establishing three independent ML models trained under different strategies with various combinations of datasets. Detailed parametric studies were then conducted by utilizing the well-trained ML models. It appeared that the presence of shear reinforcement can make the predicted shear contribution from concrete in RC beams larger than the pure shear contribution of concrete due to the intervention effect between shear reinforcement and concrete. On the other hand, the size effect also brought a significant impact on the shear contribution of concrete (V_c), whereas, the addition of shear reinforcements can effectively mitigate the size effect. It was also found that concrete tends to be the primary source of shear resistance when shear span-depth ratio a/d<1.0 while shear reinforcements become the primary source of shear resistance when a/d>2.0.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.477-483
• /
• 2014

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(${\varepsilon}$-caprolactone) (PCL) blends with various components for melt-blown non-wovens were prepared by a twin-screw extruder. Tributyl citrate (TBC) was added in order to improve the miscibility between PLA and PCL. The results showed that small circular particles of PCL were dispersed in PLA matrix uniformly. The addition of PCL had the heterogeneous nucleation effect on the crystallization of PLA and decreased thermal stability of PLA. The flow of pure PLA and blends approached to Newtonian liquid at a low shear rate and expressed more obvious viscoelasticity at a high shear rate.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.84 no.1
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 2022

An efficient and accurate classification method for failure modes of reinforced concrete (RC) columns was proposed based on key characteristic parameters. The weight coefficients of seven characteristic parameters for failure modes of RC columns were determined first based on the support vector machine-recursive feature elimination. Then key characteristic parameters for classifying flexure, flexure-shear and shear failure modes of RC columns were selected respectively. Subsequently, a support vector machine with key characteristic parameters (SVM-K) was proposed to classify three types of failure modes of RC columns. The optimal parameters of SVM-K were determined by using the ten-fold cross-validation and the grid-search algorithm based on 270 sets of available experimental data. Results indicate that the proposed SVM-K has high overall accuracy, recall and precision (e.g., accuracy>95%, recall>90%, precision>90%), which means that the proposed SVM-K has superior performance for classification of failure modes of RC columns. Based on the selected key characteristic parameters for different types of failure modes of RC columns, the accuracy of SVM-K is improved and the decision function of SVM-K is simplified by reducing the dimensions and number of support vectors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2008.10a
• /
• pp.1181-1192
• /
• 2008

A laboratory investigation was carried out into effects of strain rate on undrained shear behavior of Holocene clay underneath Kobe Airport with an objective to evaluate the factor of safety of the retaining structure built on it. It was examined in a series of triaxial compression and extension tests performed using different rate of axial straining. A comparative compression test in which the strain rate was changed in steps was also carried out. Similar tests were performed in constant-volume direct shear box (DSB) test. And, the deformation characteristics of the clay were also examined in order to evaluate the variation of stiffness during undrained shearing. It was found that the undrained strength increased with not only the shear rate but also the consolidation period. ISOTACH properties seemed a key to govern the undrained shear behavior.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.195-201
• /
• 2019

Long caisson breakwaters can improve the structural safety of a caisson due to the wave dispersion effect which reduces the average wave force acting on one caisson. However, in order to make long caissons, there are many manufacturing and construction limitations. Recently, interlocking caisson systems, which are to form a long caisson by interlocking individual caissons with adjacent caissons, have been much attention. In the present study, a interlocking caisson system with shear-keys was proposed and the wave dispersion effect according to the shear-key was evaluated analytically. As a result, (1) Because of the asymmetric shape of the interlocking caisson, the structure behavior and the wave dispersion effect of one are also asymmetric. (2) The wave dispersion effect is more influenced by the distribution and characteristics of wave acting on each caisson rather than the shape of the shear-key such as shear angle, height, shear length ratio. (3) The interlocking caisson breakwater is almost the same behavior and wave dispersion effect as a fully integrated breakwater.