• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.1435-1440
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• 2009

Geotechnical variability is a complex feature that results from many independent sources of uncertainties, and is mainly affected by inherent variability and measurement errors. This study evaluates the coefficient of variation (COV) of soil properties at Song-do region in Korea for evaluating inherent soil variability. Since soil variability is sensitive to soil layers and soil types, the COVs by soil layers (reclaimed layer and marine layer) and the COVs by soil types (clay and silt) were separately evaluated. It is observed that geotechnical variability of marine layer and clay is relatively smaller than that of reclamation layer and silt.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.355-361
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• 2008

As agricultural machinery has become larger and tillage practices have changed in recent decades, compaction as a result of wheel traffic and tillage has caused increasing concern. If strategies to manage compaction, such as deep tillage, could be applied only where needed, economic and environmental benefits would result. For such site-specific compaction management to occur, compacted areas within fields must be efficiently sensed and mapped. We previously developed an on-the-go soil strength profile sensor (SSPS) for this purpose. The SSPS measures within-field variability in soil strength at five soil depths up to 50 cm. Determining the variability structure of SSPS data is needed for site-specific field management since the variability structure determines the required intensity of data collection and is related to the delineation of compaction management zones. In this paper, soil bin data were analyzed by a spectral analysis technique to determine the variability structure of the SSPS data, and to investigate causes and implications of this variability. In the soil bin, we observed a repeating pattern due to soil fracture with an approximate 12- to 19-cm period, especially at the 10-cm depth, possibly due to cyclic development of soil fracture on this interval. These findings will facilitate interpretation of soil strength data and enhance application of the SSPS.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.73-88
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• 2009

Geotechnical variability is a complex feature that results from many independent sources of uncertainties, and is mainly affected by inherent variability and measurement errors. This study evaluates the coefficient of variation (COV) of soil properties and soil layers at Song-do region in Korea. Since soil variability is sensitive to soil layers and soil types, the Cays by soil layers (reclaimed layer and marine layer) and the COVs by soil types (clay and silt) were separately evaluated. It is observed that geotechnical variability of marine layer and clay is relatively smaller than that of reclamation layer and silt. And, the highly weathered rock and soil show the higher cays in the interpretation of the strength parameters of the fresh and weathered rock. And the proposed COV of Songdo area can be used for the reliability-based design procedure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.219-230
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• 2022

Knowing that the variability of soil properties is an important source of uncertainty in geotechnical analyses, we will study in this paper the effect of this variability on the seismic response of a structure within the framework of Soil Structure Interaction (SSI). We use the proposed and developed model (N2-ISS, Mekki et al., 2014). This approach is based on an extension of the N2 method by determining the capacity curve of the fixed base system oscillating mainly in the first mode, then modified to obtain the capacity curve of the system on a flexible basis using the concept of the equivalent nonlinear oscillator. The properties of the soil that we are interested in this paper will be the shear wave velocity and the soil damping. These parameters will be modeled at first, as independent random fields, then, the two parameters will be correlated. The results obtained showed the importance of the use of random field in the study of SSI systems. The variability of soil damping and shear wave velocity introduces significant uncertainty not only in the evaluation of the damping of the soil-structure system but also in the estimation of the displacement of the structure and the base-shear force.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.165-175
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• 2017

This paper studies soil properties uncertainty and its implementation in the seismic response evaluation of structures. For this, response sensitivity of two 4- and 12-story RC shear walls to the soil properties uncertainty by considering soil structure interaction (SSI) effects is investigated. Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) model is used for shallow foundation modeling and the uncertainty of soil properties is expanded to the foundation stiffness and strength parameters variability. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique is employed for probabilistic evaluations. By investigating the probabilistic evaluation results it's observed that as the soil and foundation become stiffer, the soil uncertainty is found to be less important in influencing the response variability. On the other hand, the soil uncertainty becomes more important as the foundation-structure system is expected to experience nonlinear behavior to more sever degree. Since full This paper studies soil properties uncertainty and its implementation in the seismic response evaluation of structures. For this, response sensitivity of two 4- and 12-story RC shear walls to the soil properties uncertainty by considering soil structure interaction (SSI) effects is investigated. Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) model is used for shallow foundation modeling and the uncertainty of soil properties is expanded to the foundation stiffness and strength parameters variability. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique is employed for probabilistic evaluations. By investigating the probabilistic evaluation results it's observed that as the soil and foundation become stiffer, the soil uncertainty is found to be less important in influencing the response variability. On the other hand, the soil uncertainty becomes more important as the foundation-structure system is expected to experience nonlinear behavior to more sever degree. Since full probabilistic analysis methods like MC commonly are very time consuming, the feasibility of simple approximate methods' application including First Order Second Moment (FOSM) method and ASCE41 proposed approach for the soil uncertainty considerations is investigated. By comparing the results of the approximate methods with the results obtained from MC, it's observed that the results of both FOSM and ASCE41 methods are in good agreement with the results of MC simulation technique and they show acceptable accuracy in predicting the response variability.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.55-63
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• 2012

Soil properties are not random values which is represented by mean and standard deviation but show spatial correlation. Especially, soils are highly variable in their properties and rarely homogeneous. Thus, the accuracy and reliability of probabilistic analysis results is decreased when using only one random variable as design parameter. In this paper, to consider spatial variability of soil property, one-dimensional random fields of coefficient of consolidation ($C_v$) were generated based on a Karhunen-Loeve expansion. A Latin hypercube Monte Calro simulation coupled with finite difference method for Terzaghi's one dimensional consolidation theory was then used to probabilistic analysis. The results show that the failure probability is smaller when consider spatial variability of $C_v$ than not considered and the failure probability increased when the autocorrelation distance increased. Thus, the uncertainty of soil can be overestimated when spatial variability of soil property is not considered, and therefore, to perform a more accurate probabilistic analysis, spatial variability of soil property needed to be considered.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.71-88
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• 2010

Soil nailing technique is being widely used for stabilization of vertical cuts because of its economic, environment friendly and speedy construction. Global stability and lateral displacement are the two important stability criteria for the soil nail walls. The primary objective of the present study is to evaluate soil nail wall stability criteria under the influence of in-situ soil variability. Finite element based numerical experiments are performed in accordance with the methodology of $2^3$ factorial design of experiments. Based on the analysis of the observations from numerical experiments, two regression models are developed, and used for reliability analyses of global stability and lateral displacement of the soil nail wall. A 10 m high prototype soil nail wall is considered for better understanding and to highlight the practical implications of the present study. Based on the study, lateral displacements beyond 0.10% of vertical wall height and variability of in-situ soil parameters are found to be critical from the stability criteria considerations of the soil nail wall.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.1 s.114
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• pp.24-32
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• 2006

Compaction is becoming a greater concern in crop production and the environment because it can have deleterious effects on growing conditions that are difficult to remediate. Because compaction can vary considerably from point to point within a field, and also from depth to depth within the soil profile, it is important to consider quantification and management of the spatial and vertical variability in soil compaction when developing an overall site-specific crop management plan. In this paper, the importance of soil compaction, techniques for quantification of its variability, and the concept of site-specific tillage are examined. Methods and systems to detect within-field variation in soil strength as a surrogate measure of soil compaction and related soil properties are also compared and discussed. Quantification of variability in soil compaction and site-specific compaction management was motivated recently, and sensors and control systems are still under development. Future study will need to address a number of issues related to understanding and applying the sensor measurements.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2018

The objective of this study is to evaluate the liquefaction cyclic shear stress ratio considering the soil uncertainty. In this study, the probabilistic ground response analysis and the cyclic shear stress ratio analysis for the liquefaction potential evaluation are performed considering the soil variability. The statistical properties of input ground parameters were analyzed to investigate the parameters affecting the seismic response analysis. The Probabilistic analysis was carried out by Monte Carlo Simulation method. The ground response analysis was performed considering the soil variability and the probability distribution characteristics of the ground acceleration. The probability distribution of the peak ground acceleration by seismic characteristics was presented. The differences of liquefaction shear stress ratio results according to soil variability were compared and analyzed. The maximum acceleration of the ground by the deterministic method was analyzed to be overestimation of the ground amplification phenomenon. Also, the shear stress ratio was overestimated.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.3B
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• pp.285-293
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• 2010

Soil moisture is a key factor to control the exchange of water and energy between the surface and the atmosphere. In recent, many researches for spatial and temporal variability analyses of soil moisture have been conducted. In this study, we analyzed the spatio-temporal variability of soil moisture in Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, U.S. during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2004 (SMEX04). The spatio-temporal variability analyses were performed to understand sensitivity of five observation sites with precipitation and relationship between mean soil moisture, and its standard deviation and coefficient of variation at the sites, respectively. It was identified that log-normal distribution was superior to replicate soil moisture spatial patterns. In addition, precipitation was identified as a key physical factor to understand spatio-temporal variability of soil moisure based on the temporal stability analysis. Based on current results, higher spatial variability was also observed which was agreed with the results of previous studies. The results from this study should be essential for improvement of the remotely sensed soil moisture retrieval algorithm.