• Title/Summary/Keyword: Soft soils

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The Variation of Density and Settlement for Contaminated Sediments During Electrokinetic Sedimentation and Remediation Processes (오염퇴적토에 대한 동전기적 침전 및 정화 공정에서의 시료 밀도 및 침하 변화 특성)

  • Chung, Ha-Ik
    • Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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    • v.22 no.9
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    • pp.5-14
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    • 2006
  • Generally, the sediments contain significant water, clay, colloidal fraction and contaminants, and can result in soft strata with high initial void, and its potential hazards in subsurface environments exist. Electrokinetic technique has been used in sedimentation for volume reduction of slurry tailing wastes and in remediation for extraction of contaminants from contaminated soils. In this research, the coupled effects of sedimentation and remediation of contaminated sediments are focused using electrokinetic sedimentation and remediation techniques from experimental aspects. A series of laboratory experiments including variable conditions such as initial solid content of the specimen, concentration level of the contaminant, and magnitude of applied voltage are performed with the contaminated sediment specimens mixed with ethylene glycol. Commercially available high specification Kaolin was used to simulate slurried sediment. From the test results, the settlement of specimen increases with increasing of applied voltage and decreasing of solid content and contamination level. The density of specimen increases due to settlement of specimen in the process of electrokinetic sedimentation and decreases due to extraction of organic contaminant in the process of electrokinetic remediation.

Back-calculation of Skin Friction Coefficient ($\alpha$, $\beta$) on a Single Pile by Long-Tenn Field Monitoring (현장 계측 사례를 통한 단독 말뚝의 주면마찰계수($\alpha$, $\beta$ 계수) 역산정)

  • Ko, Jun-Young;Kim, Young-Ho;Choi, Yong-Kyu;Jeong, Sang-Seom
    • Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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    • v.26 no.11
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    • pp.99-110
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    • 2010
  • A fundamental study of the pile-soil systems subjected to negative skin friction in soft soil was conducted using the long-term field measurements. The emphasis was on the identification of the magnitude and distribution of skin frictions ($\alpha$ and $\beta$ coefficients) in bitumen coated and uncoated piles. A skin friction coefficient of instrumented piles is back-calculated by varying degrees of consolidation (U) of surrounding soils. It is shown that the bitumen coated pile is capable of reducing the negative skin friction up to almost 50 to 90 percents. Through comparisons with the existing friction coefficient values ($\alpha$ and $\beta$ coefficients), the calculated coefficients are within the appropriate range, and thus we can suggest basic materials to estimate the realistic pile behavior in the short-term and long-term analysis.

Response of steel pipeline crossing strike-slip fault in clayey soils by nonlinear analysis method

  • Hadi Khanbabazadeh;Ahmet Can Mert
    • Geomechanics and Engineering
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    • v.34 no.4
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    • pp.409-424
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    • 2023
  • Response of the pipeline crossing fault is considered as the large strain problem. Proper estimation of the pipeline response plays important role in mitigation studies. In this study, an advanced continuum modeling including material non-linearity in large strain deformations, hardening/softening soil behavior and soil-pipeline interaction is applied. Through the application of a fully nonlinear analysis based on an explicit finite difference method, the mechanics of the pipeline behavior and its interaction with soil under large strains is presented in more detail. To make the results useful in oil and gas engineering works, a continuous pipeline of two steel grades buried in two clayey soil types with four different crossing angles of 30°, 45°, 70° and 90° with respect to the pipeline axis have been considered. The results are presented as the fault movement corresponding to different damage limit states. It was seen that the maximum affected pipeline length is about 20 meters for the studied conditions. Also, the affected length around the fault cutting plane is asymmetric with about 35% and 65% at the fault moving and stationary block, respectively. Local buckling is the dominant damage state for greater crossing angle of 90° with the fault displacement varying from 0.4 m to 0.55 m. While the tensile strain limit is the main damage state at the crossing angles of 70° and 45°, the cross-sectional flattening limit becomes the main damage state at the smaller 30° crossing angles. Compared to the stiff clayey soil, the fault movement resulting 3% tensile strain limit reach up to 40% in soft clayey soil. Also, it was seen that the effect of the pipeline internal pressure reaches up to about 40% compared to non-pressurized condition for some cases.

Penetration-type Bender Element Probe for Stiffness Measurements of Soft Soils (연약지반 강성측정을 위한 벤더 엘리먼트 프로브)

  • Jung, Jae Woo;Oh, Sang Hoon;Kim, Hak Sung;Mok, Young Jin
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.28 no.2C
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    • pp.125-131
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    • 2008
  • Ground stiffness(shear wave velocity) is one of the key parameters in geotechnical earthquake engineering. An In-situ seismic technique has its own advantages and disadvantages over the others in stiffness measurements. By combining the crosshole and seismic cone techniques and utilizing favourable features of bender elements, a new hybrid probe has been developed in order to enhance data quality and easiness of testing. The basic structure of the probe, called "MudFork" is a fork composed of two blades, on each of which source and receiver bender elements were mounted respectively. To evaluate the disturbance caused by the penetration of the probe, shear wave velocity measurements were carried out in the Kaolinite slurry in the laboratory. Finally, the probe was penetrated in coastal mud near Incheon, Korea, using SPT(standard penetration test)rods pushed with a routine boring machine and shear wave velocity measurements were carried out. The results were verified with data from laboratory and cone testing. The performance of the probe turns out to be excellent in terms of data quality and testing convenience.

Prediction of Various Properties of Soft Ground Soils using Artificial Neural Network (인공신경망을 이용한 연약지반의 지반설계정수 예측)

  • Kim, Young Su;Jeong, Woo Seob;Jeonge, Hwan Chul;Im, An Sik
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.26 no.2C
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    • pp.81-88
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    • 2006
  • This study performed field and laboratory tests for poor subsoils taken in six regions of the country and determined undrain shear strength. Su values and preconsolidation pressure are predicted using Back Propagation neural network (BPNN) and the application of BPNN is verified. The result of BPNN shows that correlation coefficient between test and neural network result is over 0.9, which means high correlativity. Especially the neural network uses only 6 parameters such as natural water content, void ratio, specific gravity, rate of passing 200th sieve, liquid limits and plasticity index among various affecting factors to estimate value and the correlation coefficent is 0.93. The conclusions obtained in this paper are from the tests performed for poor subsoils taken in the several regions of the country. If there were more test results, the prediction and influence of various soil properties could be effectively performed by neural network.

Unidirectional cyclic shearing of sands: Evaluation of three different constitutive models

  • Oscar H. Moreno-Torres;Cristhian Mendoza-Bolanos;Andres Salas-Montoya
    • Geomechanics and Engineering
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    • v.35 no.4
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    • pp.449-464
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    • 2023
  • Advanced nonlinear effective stress constitutive models are started to be frequently used in one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) site response analysis for assessment of porewater generation and liquefaction potential in soft soil deposits. The emphasis of this research is on the assessment of the implementation of this category of models at the element stage. Initially, the performance of a coupled porewater pressure (PWP) and constitutive models were evaluated employing a catalogue of 40 unidirectional cyclic simple shear tests with a variety of relative densities between 35% and 80% and effective vertical stresses between 40 and 80 kPa. The authors evaluated three coupled constitutive models (PDMY02, PM4SAND and PDMY03) using cyclic direct simple shear tests and for decide input parameters used in the model, procedures are recommended. The ability of the coupled model to capture dilation as strength is valuable because the studied models reasonably capture the cyclic performance noted in the experiments and should be utilized to conduct effective stress-based 1D and 2D site response analysis. Sandy soils may become softer and liquefy during earthquakes as a result of pore-water pressure (PWP) development, which may have an impact on seismic design and site response. The tested constitutive models are mathematically coupled with a cyclic strain-based PWP generation model and can capture small-strain stiffness and large-strain shear strength. Results show that there are minor discrepancies between measured and computed excess PWP ratios, indicating that the tested constitutive models provide reasonable estimations of PWP increase during cyclic shear (ru) and the banana shape is reproduced in a proper way indicating that dilation and shear- strain behavior is well captured by the models.

Behaviors of Soft Bangkok Clay behind Diaphragm Wall Under Unloading Compression Triaxial Test (삼축압축 하에서 지중연속벽 주변 방콕 연약 점토의 거동)

  • Le, Nghia Trong;Teparaksa, Wanchai;Mitachi, Toshiyuki;Kawaguchi, Takayuki
    • Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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    • v.23 no.9
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    • pp.5-16
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    • 2007
  • The simple linear elastic-perfectly plastic model with soil parameters $s_u,\;E_u$ and n of undrained condition is usually applied to predict the displacement of a constructed diaphragm wall(DW) on soft soils during excavation. However, the application of this soil model for finite element analysis could not interpret the continued increment of the lateral displacement of the DW for the large and deep excavation area both during the elapsed time without activity of excavation and after finishing excavation. To study the characteristic behaviors of soil behind the DW during the periods without excavation, a series of tests on soft Bangkok clay samples are simulated in the same manner as stress condition of soil elements happening behind diaphragm wall by triaxial tests. Three kinds of triaxial tests are carried out in this research: $K_0$ consolidated undrained compression($CK_0U_C$) and $K_0$ consolidated drained/undrained unloading compression with periodic decrement of horizontal pressure($CK_0DUC$ and $CK_0UUC$). The study shows that the shear strength of series $CK_0DUC$ tests is equal to the residual strength of $CK_0UC$ tests. The Young's modulus determined at each decrement step of the horizontal pressure of soil specimen on $CK_0DUC$ tests decreases with increase in the deviator stress. In addition, the slope of Critical State Line of both $CK_0UC$ and $CK_0DUC$ tests is equal. Moreover, the axial and radial strain rates of each decrement of horizontal pressure step of $CK_0DUC$ tests are established with the function of time, a slope of critical state line and a ratio of deviator and mean effective stress. This study shows that the results of the unloading compression triaxial tests can be used to predict the diaphragm wall deflection during excavation.

Effect of Sand Contents on Plastic and Liquid Limits and Shear Strength of Clays (모래 함유량이 점토의 액소성한계 및 전단강도에 미치는 영향)

  • Park, Sung-Sik;Nong, Zhenzhen
    • Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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    • v.30 no.2
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    • pp.65-76
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    • 2014
  • For soil improvement, sand mats or sand compaction piles are often constructed on soft marine clays. In such cases, some amounts of sand and clay are inevitably mixed. Sand or gravel often exists in the weathered soils near the slope surface. This research investigates the effect of mixing sand content on consistency limits and shear strength of clays. Firstly, sand was mixed with kaolinite or bentonite at 0, 9, 17, 23, 29, 33, 50% and then liquid and plastic limits were measured. Both plastic and liquid limits decreased as a sand content increased. The water content of clay-sand mixtures with different sand content increased by 10% or 20% step by step and then their undrained shear strength was measured using a portable vane shear device called Torvane. For all cases, undrained shear strength of clay-sand mixtures decreased rapidly until reaching a certain value. Their state changed from undrained to drained state gradually as the sand content increased, which caused their undrained shear strength to decrease. On the other hand, a series of direct shear tests were also conducted on such clay-sand mixtures to investigate the effect of sand content on cohesion and angle of internal friction. It was found from clay-sand mixtures that their cohesion decreased but angle of internal friction increased as the sand content increased.

Cyclic behavior of RT-cement treated marine clay subjected to low and high loading frequencies

  • Al-Bared, Mohammed A.M.;Harahap, Indra S.H.;Marto, Aminaton;Mohamad, Hisham;Abad, Seyed Vahid Alavi Nezhad Khalil;Mustaffa, Zahiraniza
    • Geomechanics and Engineering
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    • v.21 no.5
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    • pp.433-445
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    • 2020
  • The weakening and softening behavior of soft clay subjected to cyclic loading due to the build-up of excess pore water pressure is well-known. During the design stage of the foundation of highways and coastal high-rise buildings, it is important to study the mechanical behavior of marine soils under cyclic loading as they undergo greater settlement during cyclic loading than under static loading. Therefore, this research evaluates the cyclic stress-strain and shear strength of untreated and treated marine clay under the effects of wind, earthquake, and traffic loadings. A series of laboratory stress-controlled cyclic triaxial tests have been conducted on both untreated and treated marine clay using different effective confining pressures and a frequency of 0.5 and 1.0 Hz. In addition, treated samples were cured for 28 and 90 days and tested under a frequency of 2.0 Hz. The results revealed significant differences in the performance of treated marine clay samples than that of untreated samples under cyclic loading. The treated marine clay samples were able to stand up to 2000 loading cycles before failure, while untreated marine clay samples could not stand few loading cycles. The untreated marine clay displayed a higher permanent axial strain rate under cyclic loading than the treated clay due to the existence of new cementing compounds after the treatment with recycled tiles and low amount (2%) of cement. The effect of the effective confining pressure was found to be significant on untreated marine clay while its effect was not crucial for the treated samples cured for 90 days. Treated samples cured for 90 days performed better under cyclic loading than the ones cured for 28 days and this is due to the higher amount of cementitious compounds formed with time. The highest deformation was found at 0.5 Hz, which cannot be considered as a critical frequency since smaller frequencies were not used. Therefore, it is recommended to consider testing the treated marine clay using smaller frequencies than 0.5 Hz.

A Study on the Negative Skin Friction based on Measurements from Existing Works Analysed by 3D Finite Element Analyses (기발표 실측치 분석을 기반으로 한 3차원 유한요소해석 수행을 통한 부마찰에 관한 연구)

  • Jeon, Sang Joon;Jeon, Young Jin;Jeon, Seung Chan;Lee, Cheol Ju
    • Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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    • v.21 no.8
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    • pp.15-27
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    • 2020
  • In the current paper, a series of advanced 3D finite element analyses have been performed on existing pieces of work of negative skin friction from a geotechnical centrifuge test and full-scale field measurements. From these analyses, key features of pile behaviour under the influence of negative skin friction which, previously, were not fully understood in existing studies, have been meticulously discussed. As such, it has been possible to successfully address several numerical modelling issues such as negative skin friction induced pile settlements and group effects (the shielding effect), the effect of sacrificial piles in groups and the interaction between the pile head and the cap, the effect of interface elements at the pile-soil interface and the time-dependent pile behaviour. During a geotechnical centrifuge test, substantial amounts of negative skin frictions were mobilised when centrifugal acceleration increased from 1g to a certain g-level due to an increase in the self-weight of soil. The behaviour of piles inside a group were heavily affected by the sacrificial piles and the connectivity between the pile head and the pile cap. In particular, as negative skin friction has time dependent qualities associated with consolidation, it was logical to perform coupled analyses when analysing piles in consolidating grounds. From the current work, several insufficiencies of previous researches have been addressed, and the engineering pile behaviour subjected to negative skin friction has been clarified.