• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.3 s.68
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• pp.175-185
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• 2007

When filling material such as clay is included along the discontinuity, it may cause instability on a slope even if the direction of discontinuity works in a positive way. In the study area, slope sliding occurred at the boundary between a clay filling material and weathered soil because the physical properties differ across the boundary; and this is very similar to the situation where foliation in a rock works as a weak zone during a structural behavior, causing an inter-layer slip. In most analysis, if there exists a clay filling material, a single discontinuity is assumed to perform analysis. In those cases, the discontinuity is modeled as a slip surface within clay. Therefore, the characteristics of the boundary are not considered in the analysis, so that ultimately the physical property of clay usually prevails. The result of evaluating the slope stability affected by clay filling material shows the significant difference in the safety level due to the strength parameter depending on the failure type of the discontinuity by a filling material.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.13-25
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• 2009

In this paper, a numerical procedure of probabilistic slope stability analysis that considers the spatial variability of soil properties is presented. The procedure extends the deterministic analysis based on the limit equilibrium method of slices to a probabilistic approach that accounts for the uncertainties and spatial variation of the soil parameters. Making no a priori assumptions about the critical failure surface like the Random Finite Element Method (RFEM), the approach saves the amount of solution time required to perform the analysis. Two-dimensional random fields are generated based on a Karhunen-Lo$\grave{e}$ve expansion in a fashion consistent with a specified marginal distribution function and an autocorrelation function. A Monte Carlo simulation is then used to determine the statistical response based on the random fields. A series of analyses were performed to verify the application potential of the proposed method and to study the effects of uncertainty caused by the spatial heterogeneity on the stability of slope. The results show that the proposed method can efficiently consider the various failure mechanisms caused by the spatial variability of soil property in the probabilistic slope stability assessment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.737-746
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• 2019

Most landslides in the country are shallow failures triggered by intense rainfall. Many researchers have revealed the possibility of predicting shallow failure through the volumetric water content (VWC). This study examined how to determine shallow failure using the gradient characteristics of the volumetric water content. For this, flume experiments were conducted using weathered granite soil. To confirm the saturation state of the surface layer under a rainfall intensity of 30 and 50mm/hr, VWC sensors were installed at depths of 10 and 20 cm on the upper, middle and lower slope. The test results showed that a shallow failure determination using VWC could be applied limitedly according to the slope degree. In addition, the effective cumulative rainfall due to the rainfall infiltration velocity is considered the main factor for the failure time. The failure prediction using the gradient of the VWC depends on the installation location and depth of the sensor. According to the experimental data, the measured value at 20 cm below the slope was most effective. Therefore, an analysis method of VWC and the method of selecting the installation location confirmed through this study can provide important data for presenting the measurement criteria using VWC in the future.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.147-169
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• 2007

This study investigates the reinforcing effects of the Multi-bar Spring nails with respect to the conventional Soil-nails in artificial slopes. Based on wide experience related to design and construction, soil nails have been widely applied to reinforce slope in the world. Multi-bar spring nails are one of the improved soil nailing methods. These method maximizes bending, shearing, pull-out resistance for those multi-nails, not unit nail, that are inserted in the borehole using special spacer at regular intervals. In addition, because cutting plane is confined effect resulting from a pressured plate at the end of the nails with compression spring equipment, slope stability is secured using MS-nailing method. Analyzing bending, pull-out, shearing condition of MS-nail, it was examined throughly elastic region, load transfer capacity, reinforcing effect on cutting plate of MS-nails. In addition, Pilot and laboratory tests, numerical analysis were carried out to verify the superiority of MS-nailing method. In case, MS nailing method is applied to reinforce artificial slope, it was analyzed that bending, pull-out, shearing resistance was increased more than existing nailing method was applied. In this study, it was shown that surface failure was more or less prevented using MS-nailing method, confining effect on cutting plane using spring stuck to flexible equipment.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.85-96
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• 2009

The radius and coordinate of sliding circle are taken as searching variables in slope stability analysis. Genetic algorithm is applied for searching for critical factor of safety. In order to search for critical factor of safety in slope stability analysis efficiently and in a robust manner, some improvements for simple genetic algorithm are proposed. Taking the advantages of efficiency of neighbor-search of the simulated annealing and the robustness of genetic algorithm, a hybrid optimization method is presented. The numerical computation shows that the procedure can determine the minimal factor of safety and be applied to slopes with any geometry, layering, pore pressure and external load distribution. The comparisons demonstrate that the genetic algorithm provides a same solution when compared with elasto-plastic finite element program.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.91-103
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• 2009

Slope failure depends upon the climatic features related to related rainfall, structural geology and geomorphological features as well as the variation of the mechanical behaviors of soil constituting a slope. In this paper, among many variables, effects of soil layer thickness on the slope failure process, and variations of matric suction and volumetric water content were observed. When the soil layer is relatively thick, the descending wetting front decreases matric suction and the observed matric suction reaches to "0" value. When the wetting front reaches to the impermeable boundary, the bottom surface of steel soil box, ascending wetting front was observed. This observation can be postulated to be the effects of various sizes of pores. When macro size pores exist, the capillary effects can be reduced and infilling of pore will be limited. The partially filled pores would be filled with water during the ascending of the wetting front, which bounces from the impermeable boundary. This assumption has been assured from the observation of variation of the volumetric water contents at different depth. When the soil layer is thick (thickness = 20 cm), for granular material, erosion is a cause triggering the slope failure. It has been found that the initiation of erosion occurs when the top soil is fully saturated. Meanwhile, when the soil layer is shallow (thickness = 10 cm), slope slides as en mass. The slope failure for this condition occurs when the wetting front reaches to the interface between the soil layer and steel soil box. As the wetting front approaches to the bottom of soil layer, reduction of shear resistance along the boundary and increase of the unit weight due to the infiltration occur and these produce complex effects on the slope failure processes.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.271-280
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• 2002

A probabilistic approach to identify the effects of uncertainties of soil strength parameters on searching a critical slip surface with the lowest reliability is introduced. In general construction field, it is impossible for the engineer to always gather a variety of statistical information of soil strength parameters for which lots of laboratory and in-situ soil testing are required and to use it with enough statistical knowledge. Thus, in order that the engineer may easily understand the probabilistic concept for the slope stability analysis, this study proposes a combined procedure to incorporate the engineering probabilistic tools into the existing deterministic slope stability analysis methods. Using UTEXAS 3, a slope stability analysis computer program developed by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (U.S. COE), this study provides the results of this probabilistic slope stability analysis in terms of probability of failure or reliability index. This probabilistic method f3r slope stability analysis appears to yield more comprehensive results of slope reliability than does existing deterministic methods with safety factors alone.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.447-457
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• 2008

Laboratory tests for single plane sliding were conducted using the model rock slope to investigate the cut slope deformability and failure mechanism due to combined effect of engineering characteristics such as angle of sliding plane, water force, joint roughness and infillings. Also the possibility of prediction of slope failure through displacement monitoring was explored. The joint roughness was prepared in forms of saw-tooth type having different roughness specifications. The infillings was maintained between upper and lower roughness plane from zero to 1.2 times of the amplitude of the surface projections. Water force was expressed as the percent filling of tension crack from dry (0%) to full (100%), and constantly increased from 0% at the rate of 0.5%/min and 1%/min upto failure. Total of 50 tests were performed at sliding angles of $30^{\circ}$ and $35^{\circ}$ based on different combinations of joint roughness, infilling thickness and water force increment conditions. For smooth sliding plane, it was found that the linear type of deformability exhibited irrespective of the infilling thickness and water force conditions. For sliding planes having roughness, stepping or exponential types of deformability were predominant under condition that the infilling thickness is lower or higher than asperity height, respectively. These arise from the fact that, once the infilling thickness exceeds asperities, strength and deformability of the sliding plane is controlled by the engineering characteristics of the infilling materials. The results obtained in this study clearly show that the water force at failure was found to increase with increasing joint roughness, and to decrease with increasing filling thickness. It seems possible to estimate failure time using the inverse velocity method for sliding plane having exponential type of deformability. However, it is necessary to estimate failure time by trial and error basis to predict failure of the slope accurately.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.303-313
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• 2001

A cut-slope near Guam-Ri Hwado-Eup Namyangju-Si Kyunggi-Do collapsed during a heavy rainfall over 400mm at 28th of August 2000. The cut-slope collapse reportedly developed mainly by block sliding along a set of discontinuities, although slope angle of the cut-slope was 40$^{\circ}$(1:1.2) that agrees with the road construction criteria. This study aims to analyze differences and correlations among several data-collecting methods limited to discontinuity analysis related with cut-slope collapse. This study started with analysing discontinuity surface characteristics, geology of the country rock and orientations of the discontinuities directly related with the collapse. Analysis of aerial photos around the study area provided regional lineament data, and discontinuity plane description and measurements were collected from core logging and Borehole Image Processing System (BIPS). Spearmans correlation ranking coefficient method was used to get correlation of discontinuity planes according to analysis methods. The result suggests that the correlation coefficient is ${\gamma}_s$ = 0.91 Plus, stability analysis of discontinuity plane orientation data using equal-area stereonet revealed that the study area is unstable to planar failure. This study suggests that the cut-slope angles currently applied should be shallower and that significant attention is required to orientation distribution of discontinuities existed in cut-slopes studies.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.48-51
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• 2000

Surface damage accumulation of alumina ceramics under the cyclic stress state was analyzed. The alternating stress state in repeat pass sliding contact was simulated by a synchronized biaxial (normal and tangential) repeated indentation technique. Wear debris formation mechanism through damage accumulation and fatigue grain failure in both alumina ceramic balls and flat disks was confirmed, and the contact induced surface degradation due to fatigue cracking accumulation was quantified by measuring vertical contact displacement. Variation of structural compliance (slope of load-displacement curve) of two contacting bodies was expressed as a variation of the apparent elastic property, called pseudo-elastic constant, of the contact system.