• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.167-181
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• 2024

The soil-structure relative stiffness is a key factor affecting the seismic response of underground structures. It is of great significance to study the soil-structure relative stiffness for the soil-structure interaction and the seismic disaster reduction of subway stations. In this paper, the dynamic shear modulus ratio and damping ratio of an inhomogeneous soft soil site under different buried depths which were obtained by a one-dimensional equivalent linearization site response analysis were used as the input parameters in a 2D finite element model. A visco-elasto-plastic constitutive model based on the Mohr-Coulomb shear failure criterion combined with stiffness degradation was used to describe the plastic behavior of soil. The damage plasticity model was used to simulate the plastic behavior of concrete. The horizontal and vertical relative stiffness ratios of soil and structure were defined to study the influence of relative stiffness on the seismic response of subway stations in inhomogeneous soft soil. It is found that the compression damage to the middle columns of a subway station with a higher relative stiffness ratio is more serious while the tensile damage is slighter under the same earthquake motion. The relative stiffness has a significant influence on ground surface deformation, ground acceleration, and station structure deformation. However, the effect of the relative stiffness on the deformation of the bottom slab of the subway station is small. The research results can provide a reference for seismic fortification of subway stations in the soft soil area.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.191-203
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• 2010

To investigate the critical buckling load and post-buckling behavior of an axially loaded pile entirely embedded in soil, the non-linear large deflection differential equation for a pinned pile, based on the Winkler-model and the discretionary distribution function of the foundation coefficient along pile shaft, was established by energy method. Assuming that the deflection function was a power series of some perturbation parameter according to the boundary condition and load in the pile, the non-linear large deflection differential equation was transformed to a series of linear differential equations by using perturbation approach. By taking the perturbation parameter at middle deflection, the higher-order asymptotic solution of load-deflection was then found. Effect of ratios of soil depth to pile length, and ratios of pile stiffness to soil stiffness on the critical buckling load and performance of piles (entirely embedded and partially embedded) after flexural buckling were analyzed. Results show that the buckling load capacity increases as the ratios of pile stiffness to soil stiffness increasing. The pile performance will be more stable when ratios of soil depth to pile length, and soil stiffness to pile stiffness decrease.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.5-16
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• 2016

In the geosynthetics-reinforced piled embankment the effects of soft soil stiffness, friction angle of the fill material, tensile stiffness of geosynthetics, and height of the embankment on the load transfer soil arch measured by the critical height were numerically investigated. Results from parametric studies show that the magnitude of the soft soil stiffness is the most influencing factor on the critical height. The contour charts of the critical height with respect to the combination of the soft soil stiffness and other parameters were presented. The charts show that the critical height sensitively varies with the combination of the soft soil stiffness and the height of embankment. Under the sufficiently low stiffness of soft soil, the critical height sensitively varies with the friction angle of the fill material. Once the geosynthetic layer is placed, however, the magnitude of the tensile stiffness of the geosynthetic layer hardly influences the critical height of the soil arch.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.577-588
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• 2018

A major concern in deep excavation project in soft clay deposits is the potential for adjacent buildings to be damaged as a result of the associated excessive ground movements. In order to accurately determine the wall deflections using a numerical procedure such as the finite element method, it is critical to use the correct soil parameters such as the stiffness/strength properties. This can be carried out by performing an inverse analysis using the measured wall deflections. This paper firstly presents the results of extensive plane strain finite element analyses of braced diaphragm walls to examine the influence of various parameters such as the excavation geometry, soil properties and wall stiffness on the wall deflections. Based on these results, a multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) model was developed for inverse parameter identification of the soil relative stiffness ratio. A second MARS model was also developed for inverse parameter estimation of the wall system stiffness, to enable designers to determine the appropriate wall size during the preliminary design phase. Soil relative stiffness ratios and system stiffness values derived via these two different MARS models were found to compare favourably with a number of field and published records.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.31-43
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• 2015

A numerical analysis on the effect of increasing tensile stiffness of the geosynthetics on the soil displacement and pile efficiency was conducted. Parametric studies by changing the stiffness of soft soil, internal friction and dilatancy angles of the embankment material, and flexual stiffness of the composite layer including the geosynthetics were carried out. In general, increasing stiffness of the geosynthetics improves the pile efficiency, whereas the amount of its improvement depends on the condition of parameters. In case of the sufficiently low stiffness of the soft soil or high flexual stiffness of the composite layer including the geosynthetics, a noticeable increase in the pile efficiency can be observed. When the stiffness of the soft soil is very low, the increase in the stiffness of the geosynthetics can significantly reduce the vertical displacement in the piled embankment. When the flexual stiffness of the composite layer is sufficiently high, increasing stiffness of the geosynthetics can greatly improve the pile efficiency.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.2
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• pp.159-170
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• 2018

This paper aims to develop response modification factors for stiffness degrading structures by incorporating soil-structure interaction effects. A comprehensive parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of key SSI parameters, natural period of vibration, ductility demand and hysteretic behavior on the response modification factor of soil-structure systems. The nonlinear dynamic response of 6300 soil-structure systems are studied under two ensembles of accelograms including 20 recorded and 7 synthetic ground motions. It is concluded that neglecting the stiffness degradation of structures can results in up to 22% underestimation of inelastic strength demands in soil-structure systems, leading to an unexpected high level of ductility demand in the structures located on soft soil. Nonlinear regression analyses are then performed to derive a simplified expression for estimating ductility-dependent response modification factors for stiffness degrading soil-structure systems. The adequacy of the proposed expression is investigated through sensitivity analyses on nonlinear soil-structure systems under seven synthetic spectrum compatible earthquake ground motions. A good agreement is observed between the results of the predicted and the target ductility demands, demonstrating the adequacy of the expression proposed in this study to estimate the inelastic demands of SSI systems with stiffness degrading structures. It is observed that the maximum differences between the target and average target ductility demands was 15%, which is considered acceptable for practical design purposes.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.43-52
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• 1990

To investigate the effects of soil properties of the soft zone around a pile subjected 1,o the horizontal harmonic vibration, the parametric study is perfomed. The determination of the soil reaction or stiffness of the Winkler springs representing the soil around a pile is performed by dividing the soil profile into a number of homogeneous obtained from this study are as follows : 1) The real and imaginary parts of the stiffness show clear variations for the different shear modulus ratios, poisson's ratios, and distance retios to outer boundary as the dimensionless frequency increases. The differences are more pronounced for the imaginary part of the stiffness. 2) The stiffness of soil shows clear decrease. The real parts of the stiffness show larger as the frequency increases. On the other hand, the imaginary parts of the stiffness show smaller.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.529-537
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• 2005

This paper proposes the shaking table testing method, without any soil specimen only using building model as an experimental part, considering dynamic soil-structure interaction based on the substructure method. The two-layered soil is assumed as a soil model of the entire soil-structure interaction syhstem(SSI) in this paper. Differently from the constant soil stiffness, the frequency-dependent dynamic soil stiffness is approximated for the case of both acceleration and velocity feedback, respectively. The interaction force is observed from measuring the accelerations at superstructure. Using the soil filters corresponding to the approximated dynamic soil stiffness, the shaking table drives the acceleration or velocity, which the needed motion to give the building specimen the SSI effects. Experimental results show the applicability the proposed methodologies to the shaking table test considering dynamic soil-structure interaction.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.655-676
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• 2013

In this study, strength reduction factors and inelastic displacement ratios are investigated for SDOF systems with period range of 0.1-3.0 s considering soil structure interaction for earthquake motions recorded on soft soil. The effect of stiffness degradation on strength reduction factors and inelastic displacement ratios is investigated. The modified-Clough model is used to represent structures that exhibit significant stiffness degradation when subjected to reverse cyclic loading and the elastoplastic model is used to represent non-degrading structures. The effect of negative strain - hardening on the inelastic displacement and strength of structures is also investigated. Soil structure interacting systems are modeled and analyzed with effective period, effective damping and effective ductility values differing from fixed-base case. For inelastic time history analyses, Newmark method for step by step time integration was adapted in an in-house computer program. New equations are proposed for strength reduction factor and inelastic displacement ratio of interacting system as a function of structural period($\tilde{T}$, T) ductility (${\mu}$) and period lengthening ratio ($\tilde{T}$/T).

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.686-691
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• 2009

Damage due to frost action in pavement structure system is creating either frost heave or stiffness-weakening of subgrade soil follow melting. The formation of ice lenses requires a frost-susceptible soil, freezing temperatures, and continuous water supply. Eliminating one of these conditions suffices to significantly reduce the intensity of frost action. It is important to know characteristics of subgrade soil in frost susceptibility or decide degree of freezing permission. Also, study on the stiffness variation of subgrade soil during freezing and thawing cycle is very important. In this study, Impact resonance test for subgrade soil at freezing and thawing confirms that is applied for.