• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.419-429
• /
• 2020

To investigate the effect of spatial variability on hydraulic properties of unsaturated soils, a numerical model is set up which can simulate seepage process in an unsaturated heterogeneous soil. The unsaturated heterogeneous soil is composed of matrix sand embedded with a small proportion of clay for simulating the heterogeneity. Soil-water characteristic curve and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity curve of the unsaturated soil are expressed by Van Genuchten model. Hydraulic parameters of the matrix sand are considered as random fields. Different autocorrelation lengths (ACLs) of hydraulic parameter of the matrix sand and different proportions of clay are assumed to investigate the influence of spatial variability on the equivalent hydraulic properties of the heterogeneous soil. Four model sizes are used in the numerical experiments to investigate the influence of scale effects and to determine the sizes of representative volume element (RVE) in the numerical simulations. Through a number of Monte Carlo simulations of unsaturated seepage analysis, the means and the coefficients of variations (COVs) of the equivalent hydraulic parameters of the heterogeneous soil are calculated. Simulations show that the ACL and model size has little influence on the means of the equivalent hydraulic parameters, but they have a large influence on the COVs of the equivalent hydraulic parameters. The size of an RVE is mainly affected by the ACL and the proportion of heterogeneity. The influence of spatial variability on the hydraulic parameters of the heterogeneous unsaturated soil can be used as a guidance for geotechnical reliability analysis and design related to unsaturated soils.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.42 no.spc
• /
• pp.8-13
• /
• 2009

Mathematical models have become increasingly popular in both research and management problems involving flow and transport processes in the subsurface. Rosetta is a program to estimate unsaturated hydraulic properties from surrogate soil data such as soil texture data and bulk density. Models of this type are called pedotransfer functions (PTFs) as an alternative measurements since they translate basic soil data into hydraulic properties. These functions may be either measured directly or estimated indirectly through prediction from more easily measured data based using quasi-empirical models.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.343-353
• /
• 2024

The hydraulic anisotropic behavior of unsaturated soil has not been fully explored in relation to the grain-size distribution. The present study conducted laboratory assessments to examine the hydraulic anisotropy condition of statically compacted specimens in various initial states. The investigation incorporated the concept of hydraulic anisotropy by employing two discrete forms of soil stratification: horizontal-layering (HL) and vertical-layering (VL). The examined soils comprised sandy silt and silty sand, exhibiting either unimodal or bimodal soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC). This study aimed to investigate the potential correlation between the hydraulic anisotropy ratio and soil properties. The present study established a correlation between the hydraulic anisotropy ratio and several soil parameters, including fine content, dry density, plastic limit, and liquid limit. The study results indicate a non-linear relationship between the percentage of fine and dry density in soils with unimodal and bimodal soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) and hydraulic anisotropy ratio.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.62 no.6
• /
• pp.11-20
• /
• 2020

We estimated the spatio-temporally distributed soil moisture using Sentinel-1A/B SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) sensor images and soil moisture data assimilation technique in South Korea. Soil moisture data assimilation technique can extract the hydraulic parameters of soils using observed soil moisture and GA (Genetic Algorithm). The SWAP (Soil Water Atmosphere Plant) model associated with a soil moisture assimilation technique simulates the soil moisture using the soil hydraulic parameters and meteorological data as input data. The soil moisture based on Sentinel-1A/B was validated and evaluated using the pearson correlation and RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) analysis between estimated soil moisture and TDR soil moisture. The soil moisture data assimilation technique derived the soil hydraulic parameters using Sentinel-1A/B based soil moisture images, ASOS (Automated Synoptic Observing System) weather data and TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission)/GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) rainfall data. The derived soil hydrological parameters as the input data to SWAP were used to simulate the daily soil moisture values at the spatial domain from 2001 to 2018 using the TRMM/GPM satellite rainfall data. Overall, the simulated soil moisture estimates matched well with the TDR measurements and Sentinel-1A/B based soil moisture under various land surface conditions (bare soil, crop, forest, and urban).

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.815-827
• /
• 2015

The mechanical behavior of soil and soil-rock mixture is investigated via the discrete element method. A non-overlapping combination method of spheres is used to model convex polyhedron rock blocks of soil-rock mixture in the DEM simulations. The meso-mechanical parameters of soil and soil-rock interface in DEM simulations are obtained from the in-situ tests. Based on the Voronoi cell, a method representing volumtric strain of the sample at the particle scale is proposed. The numerical results indicate that the particle rotation, occlusion, dilatation and self-organizing force chains are a remarkable phenomena of the localization band for the soil and soil-rock mixture samples. The localization band in a soil-rock mixture is wider than that in the soil sample. The current research shows that the 3D discrete element method can effectively simulate the mechanical behavior of soil and soil-rock mixture.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.39 no.5
• /
• pp.259-267
• /
• 2006

Hydraulic conductivity is the rate of water flux on hydraulic gradient. The van Genuchten Mualem (VGM) model is frequently used for describing unsaturated state of soils, that is composed with the function of soil water potential and soil water content and requests various parameters. This study is to get the value of VGM parameters used Rosetta computer program based on neural network analysis method and to calculate VGM parameters. VGM parameters included Ko(effective saturated hydraulic conductivity), ${\theta}r$(residual soil water content), ${\theta}s$(saturated soil water content), L, n and m. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity at 10 kPa was calculated by using Rosetta program. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivities of 17 soil series at 1, 3, 5, 7 kPa were also obtained by applying saturated hydraulic conductivity by disk tension infiltrometer based on Gardner and Wooding's equation. Water flow at the water potential of 3 kPa was very low except Namgye, Hagog, Baegsan, Sangju, Seogcheon, Yesan soil series. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity at 1 kPa showed the highest value for Samgag soil series and was in order of Yesan, Hwabong, Hagog and Baegsan soil series. Those of Gacheon, Seocheon and Ugog soil series were very low. When the value by VGM was compared with the value by disc tension infiltrometer, there was a tendency with exponential function to soils without gravel but there was no tendency to soils including gravel. Conclusively, it would be limited that VGM model for unsaturated hydraulic conductivity analysis applies to Korean agricultural land including gravel and having steep slope, shallow soil depth.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.55 no.4
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2013

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function is one of key parameters to solve the flow phenomena in problems of landslide. Prediction models for hydraulic conductivity function related to soil-water retention curve equations in many geotechnical applications have been still used instead of direct measurement of the hydraulic conductivity function since prediction models from soil-water retention curve equations are attractive for their fast and easy use and low cost. However, many researchers found that prediction models for the hydraulic conductivity function can not predict the hydraulic conductivity exactly in comparison with experimental outputs. This research introduced an inverse analysis to evaluate the hydraulic conductivity function corresponding to experimental output from the flow pump system. Optimisation process was carried out to obtain the hydraulic conductivity function. This research showed that the inverse analysis with flow pump system was suitable to assess the hydraulic conductivity in unsaturated soil, and the prediction models for the hydraulic conductivity were led to the significant discrepancy from actual experimental outputs.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.46-52
• /
• 2010

Derivative analysis, based on the derivative of the drawdown as a function of time (i.e., rate of drawdown change), was applied to the evaluation of hydraulic parameters of the aquifer as an aid of the aquifer test interpretation based on the Theis solutions. Pumping tests were conducted at a coastal fractured aquifer in Muan county, Korea, of which the drawdown data, measured at the two observation wells, were used for derivative analysis. Wellbore storage and transition period were hard to identify at conventional log-log and semi long plots, but was easily recognized by distinctive curves of positive unit slope, hump and negative unit slope in the derivative plot. For the observation well of OW-2 at which wellbore storage and transition lasted over an hour, conventional aquifer analysis would suffer from the uniqueness problems and in further result in erroneous hydraulic parameters. Derivative analysis was found to be effective for distinguishing the drawdown data directly reflecting the aquifer property from those reflecting non aquifer effects such as wellbore storage and transition, which offers a unified methodology to yield correct hydraulic parameters from aquifer test data.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2005.10a
• /
• pp.344-351
• /
• 2005

In this paper, a reliability-groundwater flow program is developed by coupling the 2-D finite element numerical groundwater flow program with first and second order reliability program. From the parametric study of hydraulic conductivity of soil layers, the increase of both mean and variance of hydraulic conductivity results in the increase of probability of exceeding the threshold hydraulic head. The probability of failure was more sensitive to parameters of weathered granitic soil and rock located at the middle and bottom of the excavation than those at the other locations. It can be recommended from this study that the reliability method, which can include the uncertainty of soil parameters, should be performed together with the deterministic analysis to compensate the weakness of the latter analysis for the groundwater flow problem of underground excavations.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.583-598
• /
• 2022

The Compaction effect is important for evaluating the subgrade construction. However, there is little research exploring the compaction quality of deep soil using hydraulic compaction. According to reinforcement effect analysis, dimensional analysis is adopted in this work to analyze subgrade compactness within the effective reinforcement depth, and a prediction model is obtained. A hydraulic compactor is then employed to carry out an in-situ reinforcement test on gravel soil subgrade, and the subgrade parameters before and after reinforcement are analyzed. Results show that a reinforcement difference exists inside the subgrade, and the effective reinforcement depth is defined as increasing compactness to 90% in the depth direction. Layered compactness within the effective reinforcement depth is expressed by parameters including the drop distance of the rammer, peak acceleration, tamping times, subgrade settlement, and properties of rammer and filler. Finally, a field test is conducted to verify the results.