• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.125-136
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• 1996

In order to investigate the characteristics of gravity drainage for geotextile, small-scale model tests for the geotextile chimney drain of earth dam which is a typical type of gravity drainage were carried out using 15 kinds of nonwoven and composite geotextiles. According to the results of this study, the drainage discharge of geotexgile drain generally increases with exponential function as hydraulic head increases and the increasing rate is greater in the coarser soil of dam material. It has a trend to increase when the construction slope of geotextile drain is steeper and the number of layers of geotextile is more. The relationship between the transmissivity of geotextile and the drainage discharge has positive correlation and the rate of increase is greater in the coarser soil. The geotextile products must be carefully selected in consideration of transmissivity of geotextile when the soil to be drained is coarser and the seepage flow is relatively high. Most of staple fiber nonwoven geotextile used in this study are found to be appropriate for drainage purpose. Among them, the composite geotextile the type of which geotextile is evaluated to be the most excellent material. But the geotextile of low permeability such as filament thermal bonded and filament spunbonded nowovens closely examined their transmissivity especially to be used for drainage function.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.99-106
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• 2008

This study is concernsed with the effect of a chimney drainage system installed at the back of reinforced soil block on preventing the pore water pressure development. A series of finite-element analyses based on transient seepage analysis were performed for a number of cases with different patterns of the chimney drainage system. The results were thoroughly analyzed to get insight into the mechanism of pore water pressure reduction effect of the chimney drainage system. It is shown that a vertical drainage system installed at the back of reinforced zone can be an effective means of maintaining the wall stability during rainfall by preventing pore pressure increase in the reinforced as well as the backfill zones. Also shown is that the optimum height of the chimney drain is 50% of the wall height. Practical implications of the findings were discussed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.193-204
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• 2009

A 10.4-m high highway embankment retained behind mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls is under construction in the northeastern part of the Indian state of Bihar. The structure is constructed with compacted, micaceous, grey, silty sand, reinforced with polyester (PET) geogrids, and faced with reinforced cement concrete fascia panels. The connections between the fascia panels and the geogrids failed on several occasions during the monsoon seasons of 2007 and 2008 following episodes of heavy rainfall, when the embankment was still under construction. However, during these incidents the MSE embankment itself remained by and large stable and the collateral damages were minimal. The observational data during these incidents presented an opportunity to develop and calibrate a simple procedure for estimating rainfall induced pore water pressure development within MSE embankments constructed with backfill materials that do not allow unimpeded seepage. A simple analytical finite element model was developed for the purpose. The modeling results were found to agree with the observational and meteorological records from the site. These results also indicated that the threshold rainwater infiltration flux needed for the development of pore water pressure within an MSE embankment is a monotonically increasing function of the hydraulic conductivity of backfill. Specifically for the MSE embankment upon which this study is based, the analytical results indicated that the instabilities could have been avoided by having in place a chimney drain immediately behind the fascia panels.