• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.99-101
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• 2003

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity models have been widely used for the numerical modeling of water flow and contaminant transport in soils. In this study, a simple hydraulic conductivity model is developed by using information of particle-size distribution from the lognormal distribution model and its results are compared with those from the Kosugi-Mualem (KM) model. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified for observed data chosen from the international UNSODA database. Results showed that the proposed model produces adequate predictions of hydraulic conductivities. Performance of this model is generally better than the KM function.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.63-69
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• 2016

In this paper, shear strength characteristics of an unsaturated soil were compared using triaxial compression tests(CD) and modified direct shear tests and thus feasibility of the newly modified direct shear testing apparatus was confirmed. The shear strength tests of unsaturated state with a soil sample, obtained from a slope where debris flow occurred at Yangpyeong in Kyeunggi province during 2010, were performed. Both tests showed a linear relationship of matric suction with the shear strength under low level of matric suction. The apparent cohesion of the unsaturated soil was also increased linearly with increase of matric suction. As results of comparing two different testing apparatus, estimated values of shear strength parameters of unsaturated soil($c^{\prime}$, ${\phi}^b$) were slightly larger in the modified direct shear tests due to constraint effect of shear box.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.808-812
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• 2010

A great deal of attention is focused on coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical (THM) behavior of multiphase porous media in diverse geo-mechanical and geo-environmental areas. This paper presents general governing equations for coupled THM processes in unsaturated porous media. Coupled partial differential equations are derived from 3 mass balances equations (solid, water, and air), energy balance equation, and force equilibrium equation. Finite element code is developed from the Galerkin formulation and time integration of these governing equations for 4 main variables (displacement $\underline{u}$, gas pressure $P_g$, liquid pressure $P_l$), and temperature T). The code is validated with theoretical solutions for linear material with simple boundary conditions.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2019

In the present study, analysis of contaminant transport through one dimensional unsaturated stratified media using element free Galerkin method has been presented. Element free Galerkin method is a meshfree method. A FORTRAN code has been developed for the same. The developed model is compared with the results available in the literature and are found in good agreement. Further a parametric study has been conducted to examine the effects of various parameters like velocity, dispersivity, retardation factor and effect of saturation on the contaminant flow. The results presented conclude that transport of contaminant is retarded in unsaturated zone in comparison with the saturated zone.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.393-398
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• 2005

In order to treat flow problems for an unsaturated soils, it is required the mediation of the coefficient of permeability with variation of suction. The coefficient of permeability for soils can be determined by the direct or indirect methods. The direct methods of permeability can be performed either in the laboratory or in the field. The indirect methods can be predicted from the soil-water characteristics curve. Laboratory test methods to measure the coefficient of permeability can be categorized into two types, steady-state and unsteady-state. In this study, the coefficient of permeability for unsaturated soils was determined by the modified apparatus for steady state-method(Klute, 1972) and was predicted from the equations of Brooks and Corey(1964) and Van Genuchten(1980). Experimental results were compared with predicted coefficient of permeability and verified applicability of the two equations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.361-366
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• 2005

Since most soils exist above the ground water table, negative pore pressure exist in unsaturated soils. Negative pore water pressure in unsaturated soil affects the soil structure and degree of saturation and it is important for accurate evaluation of unsaturate flow and behavior. This negative pore pressure is called a matric suction which causes an increased shear strength. Therefore, it is required that the effect of increase in the shear strength should be included in a geotechnical analysis. From the test result, the influence of net confining pressure and matric suction on the shear strength was analyzed and strength parameter was increased with matric suction increase and a unliner relationship was found to relate matric suction and shear strength.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.727-740
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• 2018

The media in the undersaturated zone is defined as the uppermost layer of the water table at which the groundwater is unsaturated or saturated discontinuously. The properties of the unsaturated zone can affect the reduction of contaminants that flow from the lower part of soil to the water table. In recent, there have been problems in evaluating groundwater contaminations vulnerability because weighted value for permeability is given, regardless of anisotropy and heterogeneity in the unsaturated media. Geological media have various ranges of permeability. When applying the weighted value, representative of permeability for grain sizes standardized, to construction of contamination vulnerability, it will produce more exaggerated result than the case that considers unsaturated geological properties. In this study, we performed laboratory column tests considering two sets of the unsaturated layers in order to investigate the permeability in anisotropic unsaturated zone with anisotropy. On the basis of the tests, average permeability coefficients were calculated considering the properties of unsaturated media obtained from drill cores in the field. The final contamination vulnerability map constructed shows that the contamination vulnerability map applying the properties of geological media of the unsaturated zone coincides much better with the results measured in the field, compared to the case of contamination vulnerability considering the weighted value in the unsaturated zone.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.325-330
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• 2016

The second phase of low- and intermediate-level waste (LILW) disposal facility is under planned on the sedimentary rock in unsaturated zone. In this study, we created two meshes which were a matrix continuum mesh and a fracture continuum mesh to carry out 2 dimensional numerical modeling for groundwater flow in the unsaturated zone containing fractures focused on the second phase of LILW disposal facility. Two continuum meshes were developed using MINC in meshmaker module of TOUGH2 code. A fracture continuum mesh was included the k-field distribution of the permeability derived from the Discrete Fractured Network (DFN) modeling. To apply the unsaturated zone for the modeling, the gridding steps to generate mesh were developed. Each step to generate a mesh consisted of definition of materials, setting the initial conditions and creating grids using MINC. The methodology development of meshes in this study will be applied for more precise modeling of groundwater flow and mass transport.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.465-471
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• 2015

Adsorption experiments for radionuclides such as $^3H$, $^{90}Sr$ and $^{99}Tc$ were conducted using fractured rock collected in unsaturated zone. The released radionuclide through artificial barrier from the near surface repository can be transported by the flow of rainfall or pore water through fractures in unsaturated zone and reach to groundwater flow. Therefore, it is important to investigate transport behavior (retardation) of radionuclides through fractured rock for the safety assessment and long-term performance of repository. Fractured rock samples were collected and characterized by X-ray microtomography (XMT) analysis, which can be used to develop a more robust unsaturated fracture transport model. When fracture-filling materials are exist, distribution coefficient of $^{90}Sr$ is higher than without fracture-filling materials. In this study, batch sorption distribution coefficient ($K_d$) of radionuclide was determined and used to increase our understanding of radionuclide retardtion through fracture-filling materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.866-873
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• 2009

CFRD (Concrete Faced Rockfill Dam) has been world-widely constructed due to a lot of advantages compared with rockfill dam and recently, sand/gravel materials, instead of crushed rock materials, are also utilized as a main rockfill material to overcome geological and environmental problems. In this paper, the process of water infiltration into the originally unsaturated sand/gravel-fill dam is studied using two-dimensional saturated-unsaturated seepage theory. According to the results of seepage analysis, if the effective drainage zone is installed in the dam, the reservoir water infiltrate into the dam along a downward flow path towards the lower drainage area. The main body constructed with sand/gravel materials, therefore, remains unsaturated.