• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.1239-1248
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• 2024

Peatlands are marginal agricultural lands due to highly acidic soil conditions and poor drainage systems. Drought stress is a big problem in peatlands as it can affect plants through poor root development, so technological innovations are needed to increase the productivity and sustainability of upland rice on peatlands. Rhizobacteria can overcome the effects of drought stress by altering root morphology, regulating stress-responsive genes, and producing exopolysaccharides and indole acetic acid (IAA). This study aimed to determine the ability of rhizobacteria in upland rice to produce exopolysaccharides and IAA, identify potential isolates using molecular markers, and prove the effect of rhizobacteria on viability and vigor index in upland rice. Rhizobacterial isolates were grown on yeast extract mannitol broth (YEMB) medium for exopolysaccharides production testing and Nutrient Broth (NB)+L-tryptophan medium for IAA production testing. The selected isolates identify using sequence 16S rRNA. The variables observed in testing the effect of rhizobacteria were germination ability, vigour index, and growth uniformity. EPS-1 isolate is the best production of exopolysaccharides (41.6 mg/ml) and IAA (60.83 ppm). The isolate EPS-1 was identified as Klebsiella variicola using 16S rRNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. The isolate EPS-1 can increase the viability and vigor of upland rice seeds. K. variicola is more adaptive and has several functional properties that can be developed as a potential bioagent or biofertilizer to improve soil nutrition, moisture and enhance plant growth. The use of rhizobacteria can reduce dependence on the use of synthetic materials with sustainable agriculture.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.111-122
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• 2012

Resistivity seismic dilatometer (RSDMT) system is introduced. The resistivity module for obtaining resistivity-depth plot and seismic module for obtaining wave velocity-depth plot are attached to the conventional flat dilatometer testing equipment. To enhance the reliability and repeatability of seismic part in RSDMT, automatic testing system including automatic surface source, PC based data acquisition system and operating program was constructed. To obtain real resistivity value of soil, geometric factor for the array of electrodes in RSDMT was derived empirically. The verification studies for the developed RSDMT system were performed with SPT, CPTu, bender element test and DC resistivity survey. Through one penetration of RSDMT, various soil parameters were obtained and the reliability and repeatability of developed RSDMT system could be checked.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2010

Currently, the pursuit of industrialization for rapid economic growth has led to serious environmental damage and related problems because of comtamination with chemicals. Over time, this contaminaion is getting worse and worse. Most developing countries have tried to pursue their economic development and growth, however without preparation for the control and disposal of hazardous wastes. Permitting hazardous waste to be abandoned and disposed in appropriately causes soil pollution, groundwater contamination, and surface water contamination, which are all extremely serious. In particular, when hazardous wastes which include toxic chemicals are distributed around the living environment even in small amounts, concentration can occur in the food chain through ecological systems, which can therefore affect human. Chromium(VI) has contaminated soil in China. We experimented to test the immobilization, chemical reduction, and soil washing methods in order to make our experiment efficient in the purification of soil contaminated with Chromium(VI), and to prove the theoretical models by experiments testing the field applications. The field experiment showed that result of experiment satisfied with the standards of China. The result of multi-stage continuous remediation reduce the Chromium(VI) concentration to 11.95 mg/kg and 14.83 mg/kg that were equivalent to 98% and 97% removal rates. This result implied we could apply multi-stage process of Chromium(VI) contaminated soil to meet the regulatory limit of Chromium(VI).

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2007

PVD (Prefabricated Vertical drain) consists of filter and core. An effective PVD has two basic filtration functions ; first to retain soil particle ; and second, to allow water to pass from the soil into the PVD core without clogging or blinding. Clogging which reduces the permeability of the geotextile filter jacket is caused by fine particles penetrating into the geotextile filter jacket in relatively low permeability soil conditions. As clogging performance increases gradually, excess pore water flow from soil is resisted and finally consolidation delays. Current soil-geotextile filter system criteria are generally based on relationships between a representative pore size of the geotextile and particle size of the soil. In Korea, PVD geotextile filter system criteria have been applied by only testing AOS (Apparent Opening Size) of filters without evaluating the filtration and clogging performance on soil-geotexile filter systems. Therefore, the filtration tests on soil-geotexile filter systems were conducted in order to evaluate the filtration and clogging performance with 3 kinds of geotextile filters. On these tests, we have applied geotextile filter system criteria on PVD in ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$ sites.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2019

The main objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the efficiency of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in enhancing the unconfined compressive strength of soft soil alone and soft soil mixed with recycled tiles. The recycled tiles have been used to treat soft soil in a previous research by Al-Bared et al. (2019) and the results showed significant improvement, but the improved strength value was for samples treated with low cement content (2%). Hence, OPC is added alone in this research in various proportions and together with the optimum value of recycled tiles in order to investigate the improvement in the strength. The results of the compaction tests of the soft soil treated with recycled tiles and 2, 4, and 6% OPC revealed an increment in the maximum dry density and a decrement in the optimum moisture content. The optimum value of OPC was found to be 6%, at which the strength was the highest for both samples treated with OPC alone and samples treated with OPC and 20% recycled tiles. Under similar curing time, the strength of samples treated with recycled tiles and OPC was higher than the treated soil with the same percentage of OPC alone. The stress-strain curves showed ductile plastic behaviour for the untreated soft clay and brittle behaviour for almost all treated samples with OPC alone and OPC with recycled tiles. The microstructural tests indicated the formation of new cementitious products that were responsible for the improvement of the strength, such as calcium aluminium silicate hydrate. This research promotes recycled tiles as a green stabiliser for soil stabilisation capable of reducing the amount of OPC required for ground improvement. The replacement of OPC with recycled tiles resulted in higher strength compared to the control mix and this achievement may results in reducing both OPC in soil stabilisation and the disposal of recycled tiles into landfills.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.31-40
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• 2022

This study compares elastic moduli calculated using two stiffness testing methods with different strain ranges to evaluate the stress-settlement characteristics of foundation support layers. Elastic moduli were calculated by the soil stiffness gauge (SSG) in the micro-strain range and the plate load test (PLT) in the medium strain range. To apply the elastic moduli obtained by the two testing methods with different strain ranges to the design and construction of foundation soils, the correlation between each measurement value should be identified in advance. As a result of the comparative analysis of the elastic moduli calculated using the two methods in weathered soil and rock, which are representative support layers in Korea, the calculated elastic moduli differed depending on the types of soil and stress conditions. For various soil types, the static elastic modulus obtained by the PLT was reduced by 56% because of the difference in the strain level of the test compared with the dynamic elastic modulus obtained by the SSG. Therefore, the results show that it is necessary to apply corrections to the stress distribution, stress level, and dynamic effect according to the ground stiffness to effectively use the SSG instead of the PLT.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.641-646
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• 2013

Chemical properties of agricultural soils in Korea have been investigated at four-year interval in order of paddy, polytunnel, upland, and orchard soils since 1999; polytunnel soils were investigated over the whole country in 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012. Polytunnel soils were taken from the surface (0-15 cm) and subsurface (15-30 cm) at 2,651, 1,274, 1,374 and 1,374 sites in all provinces of South Korea. One hundred sampling sites located in more than 400 m altitude were additionally investigated in 2008 and 2012. Average of soil chemical properties in 2012 except Jeju province were 6.6 for pH, 3.2 dS $m^{-1}$ for EC, 37 g $kg^{-1}$ for organic matter (OM), 1,049 mg $kg^{-1}$ for available (Avail.) phosphate, 1.58 $cmol_c\;kg^{-1}$ for exchangeable (Exch.) K, 10.6 $cmol_c\;kg^{-1}$ for Exch. Ca, and 3.3 $cmol_c\;kg^{-1}$ for Exch. Mg. Except pH, averages of all chemical properties exceeded the upper limit of optimal range. The median values except pH showed a lower value than the averages. The pH, OM and Exch. Ca had slightly increased from 6.3 to 6.6, from 34 to 37 g $kg^{-1}$, and from 7.7 in 2000 to 10.6 $cmol_c\;kg^{-1}$ in 2012, respectively. The order of sample ratios exceeding the optimal range were Avail. $P_2O_5$ (83%) > Exch. Ca (80%) > Exch. K (70%) > Exch. Mg (65%) > EC (55%) > OM (48%) > pH (29%) in 2012. The order of sample ratios below the optimal range was OM (25%) > Exch. K (25%) > pH (20%), Exch. Mg and Avail. $P_2O_5$ (9%) > Exch. Ca (6%) in 2012. The excessive proportion of pH, Exch. Ca, Exch. Mg and OM slightly increased, while the insufficient proportion of those decreased. Approximately 55% of polytunnel soils exceeding EC 2 dS $m^{-1}$ was evaluated with salt accumulated soils having the risk of growth disorder of crops. Nutrient contents in polytunnel soils in Korea showed high level especially Avail. $P_2O_5$ and Exch. cations. Therefore, recommended fertilization based on soil testing or plant testing is needed for soil nutrient management.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.33-42
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• 2012

This study was performed to find the problems according to interference factors (organic matter, pH, Cr, Mn, Fe, clay, and etc.) when we analyzed the hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] in soils using UV/VIS spectrometer (US EPA 7196A), attempted to evaluate the domestic applicability of analytical method (US EPA 7199) using IC-UV/VIS spectrometer as alternative method. The recovery rate of certified reference materials was 75.0% (US EPA 7196A) and 101.4% (US EPA 7199) by the analytical methods. As the results of performing QA/QC about US EPA 7199, method detection limit (MDL) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.062 mg/kg, 0.196 mg/kg, respectively. The LOQ of US EPA 7199 was lower than that of the current soil official testing method in Korea (0.5 mg/kg). Cr(VI) contents in 23 soil samples were compared by the analytical methods of EPA 7196A and 7199. Cr(VI) was detected in 13 of 23 soil samples by EPA 7196A, while EPA 7199 was not detected in any soil samples. The Cr(VI) content in 23 soil samples by EPA 7196A was not clearly correlated with Cr, Fe, Mn and clay content in the soil samples. However, the contents of Cr(VI) and organic matter of the soil samples had the highest coefficient of determination ($R^2$) of 0.80. In order to evaluate the correlation between the recovery rates of Cr(VI) and organic matter contents in the soil samples, the recovery rates of 5 soil samples added Cr(VI) standard solution were analyzed by the analytical methods. According to the results, the higher the organic matter contents in soil samples, the lower the recovery rates of Cr(VI) by US EPA 7196, while in case of US EPA 7199, the recovery rates were stable regardless of the organic matter contents.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.298-311
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• 2015

Nowadays, automatic digging operation of an excavator is a big challenge due to the complexity of digging environment, the hardness of soil and buried obstacles into the ground. In order to achieve the maximum soil bucket volume, this paper introduces a novel engineering model that was developed as a virtual excavator in the design phase. Through this model, the designs of mechanical and control systems for autonomous excavator are executed and modified easily before developing in real testbed. Based on a concept of an autonomous excavation, a mechanical system of excavator was first designed in SOLIDWORKS, and a soil model also was modeled by finite-element analysis in ANSYS, both modeled models were then exported to ADAMS environment to investigate the digging behavior through virtual simulation. An intelligent control strategy was generated in MATLAB/Simulink to control the excavator operation. The simulation results were demonstrated by effectiveness of the proposed excavator robot in testing scenarios with many soil types and obstacles.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.192-200
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• 2010

Korea is part of a region of low or moderate seismic zone in which few earthquakes have been monitored, so it is difficult to approve design ground motions and seismic responses on structures from response spectrum. In this study, a series of dynamic centrifuge model tests for demonstrating seismic amplification characteristics in soil-foundation-structure system were performed using electro-hydraulic shaking table mounted on the KOCED 5.0 m radius beam centrifuge at KAIST in Korea. The soil model were prepared by raining dry sand and $V_S$ profiles were determined by performing bender element tests before shaking. The foundation types used in this study are shallow embedded foundation and deep basement fixed on the bottom. Total 7 building structures were used and the response of building structures were compared with response spectrum from the acceleration records on surface.