• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.301-311
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• 2020

In this study, shear strength behavior of fine-grained soils was investigated under unsaturated conditions. The samples in the unsaturated state were subjected to a net normal stress (σ-u_a) of 40 kPa and different matric suctions (u_a-u_w) of 50, 100 and 150 kPa. The matric suction values applied in the triaxial tests were selected according to the bubbling pressures determined from the SWC curves. The study was carried out on prepared re-constituted cylindrical samples by uniaxial consolidation of soil slurries. First, consolidated drained (CD) triaxial compression tests were performed on the saturated samples and the cohesion and angle of internal friction were determined. After that, drained triaxial compression tests under matric suctions were performed on the unsaturated samples. In order to obtain unsaturated test results, cohesion and internal friction angle values of saturated samples were used. The nonlinear surface representing the shear strength surface was approximated consisting of two planes (double planar surface). The reason for the nonlinear behavior of some soils is that the amount of sand content contained in it is relatively high and the bubbling pressure/permanent water content value is relatively low.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.221-232
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• 2020

In many tropical regions, soil structures often fail under constant loads as a result of decreasing matric suction due to water infiltration. Most of the previous studies have been performed by infiltrating water in the soil specimen by keeping shear stress constant at 85-90% of peak shear strength in order to ensure specimen failure during water infiltration. However, not many studies are available to simulate the soil behavior when water is infiltrated at lower shear stress and how the deformations affect the soil behavior if the failure did not occur during water infiltration. This research aimed at understanding both the strength and deformation behavior of unsaturated soil during the course of water infiltration at 25%, 50% and 75% of maximum deviatoric stress and axial strain by keeping them constant. A unique stress-strain curve expresses the transient situation from unsaturated condition to failure state due to water infiltration is also drawn. The shearing-infiltration test results indicate that the water infiltration reduces matric suction and increase soil deformation. This research also indicates that unsaturated soil failure problems should not always be treated as shear strength problems but deformation should also be considered while addressing the problems related to unsaturated soils.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.31-37
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• 2011

In order to evaluate the effect of matric suction on the strength and deformation characteristics, the unsaturated unconfined compression test is performed for the statical1y compacted silty sand. Specimens used were made under conditions with various initial degrees of saturation. The initial matric suction, matric suction at the peak shear strength and the volumetric deformation during the shear process were measured. From these results, it was found that the initial degree of saturation exerts the influence on the behaviors of suction, peak shear strength and the volumetric deformation. Furthermore, the suction stress($P_s$) which means the apparent cohesion due to matric suction in the unsaturated shear strength could be derived.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.637-644
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• 2022

Loess soils are unsaturated and widely distributed in the northwest zone in China. Many steep slope of unsaturated are observed are observed to be naturally stable. However, a low factor of safety (FoS) for these slopes would be computed from the slope stability analysis following local code practices. It seems that the analyzed results following the local code practices do not agree with the real condition as observed in the field. It is commonly known that soil suction plays an important role in slope stability due to a higher shear strength of the unsaturated soil as compared with that of the saturated soil. In this paper, it is observed that the computed FoS can also be affected by unsaturated unit weight of the soil. However, the effect of unsaturated unit weight of the soil on the slope stability is commonly ignored in engineering practice. Therefore, both the effects of shear strength and unit weight of the unsaturated soil on the computed FoS of unsaturated soil slope are investigated in this study. It is observed that the unsaturated unit weight of soil on the computed FoS increases with increase in slope angle. It is also observed that the effects of the unsaturated shear strength and unsaturated unit weight on the computed FoS are more significant than the effect of 3D analyses compared to the 2D analyses on the FoS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.649-655
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• 2010

Unsaturated compressive tests are performed to evaluate the effect of matric suction on the strength and the deformation characteristics for statically compacted natural kaolin in Korea. Under different conditions of the initial degree of saturation in kaolin, the relationship between suction and the degree of saturation at failure can be expressed by unique soil-water characteristic curve. These results demonstrate that the newly established constant water content type unsaturated shear strength test equipment can be used for estimating the relationship between suction and the compressive strength.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.35-52
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• 2009

A significantly thick zone of steep slopes is commonly encountered above groundwater table and the soils within this zone are unsaturated with negative pore-water pressures (i.e., matric suction). Matric suction contributes significantly to the shear strength of soil and to the factor of safety of unsaturated slopes. However, infiltration during rainfall increases the pore-water pressure in soil resulting in a decrease in the matric suction and the shear strength of the soil. As a result, rainfall infiltration may eventually trigger a slope failure. Therefore, understanding of shear strength characteristics of saturated and unsaturated soils under shearing-infiltration (SI) conditions have direct implications in assessment of slope stability under rainfall conditions. This paper presents results from a series of consolidated drained (CD) and shearing-infiltration (SI) tests. Results show that the failure envelope obtained from the shearing-infiltration tests is independent of the infiltration rate. Failure envelopes obtained from CD and SI tests appear to be similar. For practical purposes the shear strength parameters from the CD tests can be used in stability analyses of slopes under rainfall conditions. The SI tests might be performed to obtain more conservative shear strength parameters and to study the pore-water pressure changes during infiltration.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.69-75
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• 2014

The shear strength characteristics of an unsaturated earth material are highly important not only for evaluating the seepage characteristics but also the stability of levee for a lifelong. In this study, unsaturated strength characteristics of Nak-dong river sand and clay that frequently used for the levee construction in southern province of Korea were analyzed using unsaturated triaxial compressive test. The strength characteristics due to the variation of matric suction were analyzed using multi-stage compression technique and the results were directly compared with the non-linear formulation for the apparent cohesion ($C_{max}$), and the friction component ${\varphi}^b$ were determined and evaluated from the test for the application of linear Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria. Cohesion and friction characteristics of the unsaturated levee material under various suction phases were also explored during this study.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.45-51
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• 2012

The shear strength of weathered granite soils under unsaturated condition was evaluated by $K_0$ consolidated triaxial tests. Various matric suctions in the unsaturated triaxial tests were applied using suction-controlled triaxial test apparatus for weathered granite soils obtained in Daegu. Soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) laboratory tests for drying and wetting procedure were performed and van Genuchten curves were fitted by experimental results. The contribution of matric suction in unsaturated soils is directly correlated to effective stress and evaluated from SWCCs. The effective stresses were estimated from these SWCCs and the relationship between effective stress and unsaturated shear strength was determined. In the effective stress description, the unsaturated shear strength with respect to various suctions indicates unique relationship and almost the same as that of the saturated envelope.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.75-82
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• 2003

This paper presents the results of a study that was performed to evaluate fronds of shear strength parameters in stabilization of unbound soil-aggregate systems based on the theory of unsaturated soil mechanics. Two important shear strength parameters, effective cohesion and effective angle of internal friction were estimated by the proposed approach using the results from suction measurements and unconfined compressive strength test. In addition, the effect of different addition rates of stabilizing agent was compared. Due to the stabilization process, an increase in suction potential on engineering properties of geomaterials was observed by using dielectric constant measurements. In conclusion, the results from this study show that the proposed approach can be simply used for predicting shear strength parameters of the stabilized geomaterials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09b
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• pp.53-60
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• 2010

The natural soils are classified in saturated soils and unsaturated soils according to level of ground water but the research for only saturated soils has been conducted by this time. However, there are many proble.ms which are not solved by using the concept and principle of saturated soils on the natural soils. In fact, it is known that unsaturated soils represent the behavior characteristic unlike completely saturated soils because of the adhesion under the influence of negative pore water pressure, the high angle of friction and the low water permeability by the air entry. So it needs to conduct the various researches on insufficient unsaturated soils. In this paper, unsaturated triaxial compressive tests are conducted in order to do research on shear strength characteristic on sands and silty sands of Nakdong river. As a result of the tests, the cohesion is increased in non-linear type according to the change of the matric suction, but the angle of internal friction is not changed much.