• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.31-42
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• 2015

The Reinforced subgrade for railroad (RSR) was constructed for one way railway line with the dimension of 5 m high, 6 m wide and 20 m long to evaluate its performance under train design load. The RSR has characteristics of short length (0.3-0.4 H) of reinforcement and rigid wall, 30 and 40 cm vertical spacing of reinforcement installation. To enhance economics and constructability, three kinds of connections (welding, hinge & bolt, bold wire) were also designed to realize the integration between rigid wall and reinforced subgrade. Two times of static loading tests were done on the full size railroad subgrade. The maximum applied pressure was 0.98 MPa (the maximum test load 5.88 MN), which corresponds to 19.6 times of the design load for railroad subgrade, 50 kPa. The performance on the RSR was evaluated with the safety on the failure, subgrade bearing capacity and settlement, horizontal displacement of wall, and reinforcement strain. Based on the full scale test, we confirmed that the RSR with the conditions of 0.35 H (35% of height) short reinforcement length, hinge & bolt type connection for integration between rigid wall and reinforced subgrade, and 40cm vertical spacing of reinforcement installment shows good performance under train design load.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2009

The laboratory tests and field plate load test were carried out to evaluate the reinforcement effect of geocell for road construction. The geocell-reinforced subgrade shows the increment of cohesion and friction angle with comparison of non-reinforced subgrade. In addition, the field plate load test was performed on the geocell-reinforced subgrade to estimate the bearing capacity of soil. The direct shear test was conducted with utilizing a large-scale shear box to evaluate the internal soil friction angle with geocell reinforcement. The number of cells in the geocell system is varied to investigate the effect of soil reinforcement. The theoretical bearing capacity of subgrade soil with and without geocell reinforcement was estimated by using the soil internal friction angle. The field plate load tests were also conducted to estimate the bearing capacity with geocell reinforcement. It is found out that the bearing capacity of geocell-reinforced subgrade gives 2 times higher value than that of unreinforced subgrade soil. The settlement and the distribution of deformation were also estimated by using the finite element method. The magnitude of settlements on the geocell-reinforced subgrade and unreinforced subgrade are 6.8cm and 1.2cm, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.67-74
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• 2015

Unlike the primary consolidation settlement, the settlement of ground water lowering is not considered separately because of relatively small residual settlement. But the allowed residual settlement (30 mm) of the concrete track in the high-speed railway may be exceeded due to unexpected excessive ground water lowering. This study analyzed the effect of the settlement according to the ground water level change using finite element analysis of stress-pore pressure coupling model, and compared the analysis results with the measured data. As a result, the range of elasticity modulus satisfying the allowable settlement was proposed, and it is suggested that settlement due to ground water level changes should be reflected in the design.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.1268-1277
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• 2008

Recently, the high speed railway comes into the spotlight as the important and convenient traffic infrastructure. In Korea, Kyung-Bu high speed train service began in about 400km section at 2004, and the Ho-Nam high speed railway will be constructed by 2017. The high speed train will run with a design maximum speed of 300-350km/hr. Since the trains are operated at high speed, the differential settlement of subgrade under the rail is able to cause a fatal disaster. Therefore, the differential settlement of the embankment must be controlled with the greatest care. Furthermore, the characteristics and causes of settlements which occurred under construction and post-construction should be investigated. A considerable number of studies have been conducted on the settlement of the natural ground over the past several decades. But little attention has been given to the compression settlement of the embankment. The long-term settlement of compacted fills embankments is greatly influenced by the post-construction wetting. This is called 'hydro collapse' or 'wetting collapse'. This wetting collapse problem for the compressibility of compacted sands, gravels and rockfills, has been recognized by several researchers. For this wetting settlement problem, we showed the test results carried out with 4 fill materials. These tests were performed under the condition that the fill materials were inundated at the first wetting. Subsequently, in this study, we investigated the long-term settlement characteristics of the fill materials under the repeated partial wetting and rising of the ground water table happend by rainfall.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2012

If the railways consisting of soil subgrade is applied to repetitive loading, elastic deformation and plastic deformation will occur at the same time. So the repeat traffic loading condition should be considered to predict the long-term deformation on railway roadbed. In this study, laboratory data from the repeated load triaxial tests and cylinder model test were used to predict accumulated settlement on railway foundation and results were analyed based on the nonliear models and stress state considered. It has proposed predict model using power function model on plastic settlement of roadbed materials.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.67-75
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• 2012

This paper addresses the size effect of shallow foundation settlement in very dense weathered granite soil commonly encountered in bridge foundation. Load-settlement curves measured from the plate load tests of 5 different plate sizes in 2 sites were analyzed. The test results showed that the ground beneath the plate was considered not to reach the failure state and the settlement continuously increased proportionately as load increased. The result implies that settlement would govern the stability or serviceability of foundation on very dense weathered soil. The size effect is expressed as a relationship of subgrade reaction modulus to the size of plate. Compared with the previous relationships, the size effect in this result was more prominent and indicated that settlement prediction using the previous method could possibly underestimate the settlement of foundation in dense weathered granite soil.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1085-1101
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• 2015

Changes in substructure conditions, such as ballast fouling and subgrade settlement may cause the railway quality deterioration, including the differential geometry of the rails. The objective of this study is to develop and apply a hybrid cone penetrometer (HCP) to characterize the railway substructure. The HCP consists of an outer rod and an inner mini cone, which can dynamically and statically penetrate the ballast and the subgrade, respectively. An accelerometer and four strain gauges are installed at the head of the outer rod and four strain gauges are attached at the tip of the inner mini cone. In the ballast, the outer rod provides a dynamic cone penetration index (DCPI) and the corrected DCPI (CDCPI) with the energy transferred into the rod head. Then, the inner mini cone is pushed to estimate the strength of the subgrade from the cone tip resistance. Laboratory application tests are performed on the specimen, which is prepared with gravel and sandy soil. In addition, the HCP is applied in the field and compared with the standard dynamic cone penetration test. The results from the laboratory and the field tests show that the cone tip resistance is inversely proportional to the CDCPI. Furthermore, in the subgrade, the HCP produces a high-resolution profile of the cone tip resistance and a profile of the CDCPI in the ballast. This study suggests that the dynamic and static penetration tests using the HCP may be useful for characterizing the railway substructure.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.27-35
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• 2012

Facings of mechanically stabilized earth retaining walls have function to fix the reinforcement and prevent backfill loss, but the walls are lack of structural rigidity capable of resisting applied loads. The reinforced subgrade with rigid wall was developed to have the structural functions under train loading. Though it has lots of advantages such as small deformation after construction, its negative side effects of economics and difficult construction were mainly mentioned and not practically used. To apply it for railroad subgrade, this study focus on the construction cost down and the enhancement of constructability without functional loss. To do so, the behaviors of reinforced subgrade with rigid wall were evaluated with the change of the vertical spacing and length of reinforcement. Small scale model tests (1/10 scale) and 3 m full scale tests were performed to evaluate deformation characteristics of reinforced subgrade under simulated train loading. Even though it uses short reinforcement, it showed small horizontal displacement of wall and plastic settlement of subgrade. Also, it was verified that not only 30 cm but also 40 cm of vertical spacing of reinforcement had good performance in serviceability aspects.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.481-492
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• 2020

To study the rail mapped deformation caused by the pier settlement of simply - supported bridges with China Railway Track System III (CRTS III) slab ballastless track (SBT) system under the mode of non-longitudinal connection ballastless track slab, this study derived an analytical solution to the mapped relationships between pier settlement and rail deformation based on the interlayer interaction mechanism of rail-pier and principle of stationary potential energy. The analytical calculation results were compared with the numerical results obtained by ANSYS finite element calculation, thus verifying the accuracy of analytical method. A parameter analysis was conducted on the key factors in rail mapped deformation such as pier settlement, fastener stiffness, and self-compacting concrete (SCC) stiffness of filling layer. The results indicate that rail deformation is approximately proportional to pier settlement. The smaller the fastener stiffness, the smoother the rail deformation curve and the longer the rail deformation area is. With the increase in the stiffness of SCC filling layer, the maximum positive deformation of rail gradually decreases, and the maximum negative deformation gradually increases. The deformation of rail caused by the pier settlement of common-span bridge structures will generate low-frequency excitation on high-speed trains.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.483-494
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• 2023

High-speed trains became common nowadays due to the need for fast and safe mean to transport goods and people. However, the use of high-speed trains necessitates the examination of the critical speed, which is the train speed at which the maximum settlement of the railway track occurs. The critical speed and railway track settlement have been investigated considering only one train in previous studies. However, it is normal to have two adjacent trains moving at the same time. This paper aims to understand how the interference of two moving trains affects the settlement and critical speed of ballasted railway track. Calibrated three-dimensional finite element models of railway track subjected to one moving train and two moving trains have been developed to address the aim of the study. It is found that the interference dramatically increases the railway track settlement with a percentage increase ranges between 5 and 100%. It is also found that the percentage increase of the railway track settlement depends on the train speed and the distance between the moving trains. In addition, it is found that the thickness of the ballast layer and the stiffness of the subgrade have minor influence on the percentage increase of the settlement. Importantly, the results of this paper illustrate the importance of the interference of the moving trains on the dynamic response of the railway track. Thus, there is a need to consider the dynamic interaction between the adjacent moving trains in the design of railway track foundation.