• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.247-258
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• 2020

The shear strength of unsaturated soils, a research hotspot in geotechnical engineering, has great guiding significance for geotechnical engineering design. Although kinds of calculation models for the shear strength of unsaturated soil have been put forward by predecessors, there is still need for new models to extensively consider the nonlinear variation of shear strength, particularly for the nonlinear effect of the net normal stress on the shear strength of unsaturated soil. Here, the shear strength of unsaturated soils is explored to study the nonlinear effects of net normal stress with the introduction of a general nonlinear Mohr-Coulomb (M-C) strength criterion, and the relationship between the matric suction (or suction stress) and degree of saturation (DOS) constructed by the soil-water characteristics curve (SWCC) of van Genuchten is also applied for unsaturated soil. Then, two calculation models (i.e., an envelope shell model and an effective stress model) are established for the shear strength of unsaturated soils under the nonlinear strength theory. In these two models, the curve of the shear strength of unsaturated soils versus the net normal stress exhibits a tendency to gently. Moreover, the proposed formulas have flexibility and convenience with five parameters (for the effective stress model) or six parameters (for the envelope shell model), which are from the M-C strength parameters of the saturated soil and fitting parameters of SWCC of van Genuchten. Thereafter, by comparison with the classical theory of the shear strength of unsaturated soils from some actual cases, the rationality and accuracy of the present models were verified.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 2022

The effect of discrete polypropylene fibre reinforcement on shear strength parameters, tensile properties and isotropic index of stabilized compacted residual subgrade was investigated. Composites of compacted subgrade were developed from polypropylene fibre dosage of 0%, 1%, 2.5% and 4% and 3% cement binder. Saturated compacted soil benefited from incremental fibre dosage, the mobilized friction coefficient increased to a maximum at 2.5% fibre dosage from 0.41 to 0.58 and the contribution due to further increase in fibre dosage was marginal. Binder stabilization increased the degree of isotropy for unreinforced soil at lower fibre dosage of 1% and then decreased with higher fibre dosage. Saturation of 3% binder stabilized soil decreased the soil friction angle and the degree of isotropy for both unstabilized and binder stabilized soil increased with fibre dosage. The maximum tensile stress of 3% binder stabilized fibre reinforced residual soil was 3-fold that of 3% binder stabilized unreinforced soil. The difference in computed and measured maximum tensile and tangential stress decreased with increase in fibre dosage and degree of stabilization and polypropylene fibre reinforced soil met local and international criteria for road construction subgrade.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.423-428
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• 2005

If the load of constructing vehicles during the construction work acts on the road or the ground surface on the soft ground, due to the excess stresses in soils the trafficability of the vehicles influences the constructing efficiency, constructing period and so on. Stress distribution in soils is the very important element to design and to solve the problems of settlement, safety of foundations and trafficability of constructing vehicle in civil engineering. This research represents the comparative estimation of the actual and theoretical measurement on the underground stress of outer layer for each soil after the observation of each top soil layer for its vertical and horizontal stress in (1)homogeneous sand ground (2) weak stratum with the sand soil (3) weak stratum with gravel of the soil model, and it also investigates the effect of subsidence of ground by the repeated load. The underground stress turn out to be different in the value of theoretical and actual measurement after the trial examination of model.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.86-95
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• 2003

During this study, constant stress ratio tests with previous compression anisotropic stress history are performed on compacted decomposed granite soil sampled at Iksan, Jeonbuk. Yielding points are determined from stress-strain curves. The shape and characteristics of compression anisotropic yield curves is examined. In addition, the measured value of yielding curve and stress-strain behavior is predicted by Yasufuku's anisotropic constitutive model based on non-associated flow rule. The main results are summarized as follows : 1) Shape of yielding curves shows almost ellipse but asymmetry with respect to stress path during previous consolidation stress. 2) Yasufuku's anisotropic constitutive model is suitable in evaluation of yielding curves on anisotropic consolidated decomposed granite soil. 3) The predicted stress-strain curve shows reasonable agreement to measured behaviours.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2016

Currently, urban green space is disappearing due to urbanization, industrialization and various environmental problems including the disruption of the ecology in urban areas. To solve such problems and increase urban green area, roof greening has been suggested as an alternative. Through observing the responses of three plant species (Mukdenia rossii, Dianthus chinensis, and Pachysandra terminalis) plantrd on the soil mixed with Geohumus, this study investigated the effect of Gehumus on soil water content and plant survival. Soil water content of the rooftop soils has been increased when mixed with Geohumus. The responses were proportional to the amount of Geohumus in the mixture. Geohumus exerted a stronger influence on raising soil moisture content for soil A which had lower water-holding capacity. The stress responses of the plants varied in relation to the amount of Geohumus and soil moisture content. The stress response was lowest for Dianthus chinensis and increased in the order of Mukdenia rossii and Pachysandra terminalis. With the highest plant stress, Pachysandra terminalis showed the lowest survival rate among the three species. Without irrigation, the plants survived only for six weeks on green roofs. The survival rate differed depending on the amount of Geohumus mixed. The results of the experiment showed, with some exceptions, that Geohumus helped to improve soil water content, reduce plant stress, and extend plant survival period.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.117-126
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• 2011

Based on thermodynamics, the mathematical framework governing the hydro-mechanical behavior of partially saturated soil is derived by using balance equations, and the numerical analysis through implementation of various effective stress definitions is performed. Effective stress on partially saturated soil describes the soil strength which is presented by the relationship between water content and soil suction. For the estimation of hydro-mechanical behavior on partially saturated soil, effective stress parameter ${\chi}$ defined from various literatures is especially analyzed to understand the conditions of constitutive equations regarding residual saturation and displacement of soil. As a result, effective stress parameter ${\chi}$ has an influence on the variation of matric suction in soil with an external load and seepage. However it was found that the effect of each parameter ${\chi}$ varies with residual degree of saturation, and that of each parameter ${\chi}$ decreased with decrease in displacement of soil caused by an external load.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.145-156
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• 2024

The mechanical properties of the concrete-frozen soil interface play a significant role in the stability and service performance of construction projects in cold regions. Current research mainly focuses on the precast concrete-frozen soil interface, with limited consideration for the more realistic cast-in-place concrete-frozen soil interface. The two construction methods result in completely different contact surface morphologies and exhibit significant differences in mechanical properties. Therefore, this study selects silty clay as the research object and conducts direct shear tests on the concrete-frozen soil interface under conditions of initial water content ranging from 12% to 24%, normal stress from 50 kPa to 300 kPa, and freezing temperature of -3℃. The results indicate that (1) both interface shear stress-displacement curves can be divided into three stages: rapid growth of shear stress, softening of shear stress after peak, and residual stability; (2) the peak strength of both interfaces increases initially and then decreases with an increase in water content, while residual strength is relatively less affected by water content; (3) peak strength and residual strength are linearly positively correlated with normal stress, and the strength of ice bonding is less affected by normal stress; (4) the mechanical properties of the cast-in-place concrete-frozen soil interface are significantly better than those of the precast concrete-frozen soil interface. However, when the water content is high, the former's mechanical performance deteriorates much more than the latter, leading to severe strength loss. Therefore, in practical engineering, cast-in-place concrete construction is preferred in cases of higher negative temperatures and lower water content, while precast concrete construction is considered in cases of lower negative temperatures and higher water content. This study provides reference for the construction of frozen soil-structure interface in cold regions and basic data support for improving the stability and service performance of cold region engineering.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.416-422
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• 2008

This study was performed to design and construct a digital soil shear stress sensor in order to replace the conventional devices for measuring soil shear property. The developed digital shear stress measuring device can store measured data with GPS position information as a vector format into a computer. Based on the experiments at various field conditions, the measuring characteristic of the device was quite similar to that of a conventional device, SR-2 that has been a major tool to measure the soil shear property. It was concluded that the digital shear stress measuring device was an effective and comprehensive sensor for measuring soil shear property.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.65-72
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• 2016

There are numerous factors that affect stress distribution in a buried pipe, such as the shape, size, and stiffness of the pipe, its burial depth, and the stiffness of the surrounding soil. In addition, the pipe can benefit from the soil arching effect to some extent, through which the overburden and surcharge pressure at the crown can be carried by the adjacent soil. As a result, the buried pipe needs to support only a portion of the load that is not transferred to the adjacent soil. This paper presents numerical efforts to investigate the stress distribution in the buried concrete pipe under various environmental conditions. To that end, a nonlinear elasto-plastic model for backfill materials was implemented into finite element software by a user-defined subroutine (user material, or UMAT) to more precisely analyze the soil behavior surrounding a buried concrete pipe subjected to surface loading. In addition, three different backfill materials with a native soil were selected to examine the material-specific stress distribution in pipe. The environmental conditions considering in this study the loading effect and void effects were investigated using finite element method. The simulation results provide information on how the pressures are redistributed, and how the buried concrete pipe behaves under various environmental conditions.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.4C
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• pp.169-175
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• 2012

Soil water retention characteristics are influenced by factors of the confining stress and hysteresis in the variably saturated soil. In the description of effective stress based on hydraulic characteristics, the contribution of a matric suction to effective stress then varies with depth or is different between the processes of infiltration and evaporation. Unsaturated effective stress can be described based on suction stress characteristic curve, in which a representative soil water retention curve is required to evaluate. Pressure palate extractor tests under various confining stresses were performed and the hysteresis of drying and wetting process was also acquired. In the process of drying or wetting, a unique relationship has been estimated on the effective volumetric water content and the matric suction, which defines suction stress characteristic curve. In the unsaturated shear strength from triaxial tests, the suction stress and the effective stress were evaluated by matric suctions. The failure envelop by effective stress based on soil water retention characteristics was unique and the same as the saturated one. The measured suction stress from triaxial tests was similar to that from the soil water retention curve. Therefore it is verified that a representative soil water retention curve can be defined which is independent of the confining effect under wetting or drying process of the hysteresis.